A V E 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



A V E 



153 



foils, which will produce no other sort of grain ; it will 

 also thrive on the hottest land ; in short, there is no soil 

 too rich or too poor, too hot or too cold for it ; and in wet 

 harvests, when other grain is spoiled, this will receive little 

 or no damage ; the straw and husks being of so dry a nature, 

 that if they be housed wet, they will not heat in the mow, or 

 become mouldy, as other grain usually do ; it is therefore of 

 great advantage in the northern parts of England, and in Scot- 

 land, where the harvest is generally late, and their autumns 

 wet. The meal of this grain makes tolerably good bread, and 

 is the common food of the country people in the north. In 

 the south it is esteemed for pottage and other messes, and 

 in some places they make beer with it. Culture. The best 

 time for sowing Oats is in February or March, according 

 as the season is early or late ; and sometimes I have known 

 them sown in April, upon cold land, and they have been 

 early ripe. The Black and Red Oats may be sown a month 

 earlier than the White, because they are hardier. In the 

 papers of the Bath Agricultural Society, there is an experi- 

 ment made, in order to ascertain "he effect of early sowing. 

 Black Oats were sown on the 27th and 28th of February, 

 which is a month sooner than the common practice. The 

 quantity sown was four Winchester bushels to the acre. The 

 land was a mellow, deep, sandy loam, on which potatoes had 

 grown. The produce was ninety-eight bushels and a quar- 

 ter to the acre. The success, however, is not wholly im- 

 puted to early sowing, but partly to good deep tillage. White 

 Oats, sown the last week in May, have produced seven quar- 

 ters to the acre. In Hertfordshire, they do not put them 

 in till they have done sowing Barley : in Suffolk, on the con- 

 trary, they are sown before Barley. The former practice is 

 seemingly the best, this Oat being more tender. Mr. Mar- 

 shall gives the blowing of the Sallow as a direction for the 

 time of so wing this grain. Oats are often sown on land which 

 has in the preceding year produced Wheat, Rye, or Barley. 

 The common method is to plough in the stubble about the 

 beginning of February, and sow the Oats, and harrow them in ; 

 but they must be harrowed the same way as the furrows lie, 

 for, if it be done crosswise, the stubble will be raised on the 

 surface : but this is not a good method of husbandry, for 

 when there is time to plough the stubble in autumn, it will 

 rot in winter, and then, giving the land another ploughing, 

 and a good harrowing just before the Oats are sown, it will 

 make the ground finer, and better to receive the grain. Oats 

 are also sown upon land when it is first broken up, before 

 the ground is brought to a tilth for other grain, and are fre- 

 quently put in upon the sward with one ploughing ; but it 

 is much better to give the sward time to rot before the seed 

 is sown, for the roots of the grass will prevent those of the 

 corn from striking downwards. Most people allow four 

 bushels of Oats to an acre, but I am convinced that three 

 bushels are more than enough ; the usual produce is about 

 twenty- five bushels to an acre, though I have sometimes 

 known more than thirty bushels. This indeed is no very 

 great crop, forty bushels and upwards being no very unusual 

 produce ; but not from sowing thin. With respect to the 

 proper quantity of seed to be sown, practical men differ 

 widely in opinion. Mr. Young is decidedly of opinion, that 

 the quantity of the seed should be proportioned to the po- 

 verty of the ground ; yet there are not wanting others, who 

 i.iy, that poor soils ought not to be loaded with too much 

 seed, and that six or seven bushels an acre would utterly 

 destroy cold clay lands. On a rich soil, Oats are very apt to 

 run to straw, if sown thin ; and one capital advantage which 

 .arises from sowing thick, is, that the weeds are thereby effec- 

 tually smothered. 

 VOL. I. 13. 



7. Avena Nuda ; Naked Oat, Pilcorn, or Pillis. Panicled -, 

 calices three-flowered ; receptacle exceeding the calix ; pe- 

 tals awned at the back ; the third floscule awnless. This 

 is nearly allied to the cultivated Oat, differing in little else 

 except that the grains quit the husks, and fall naked when 

 they are ripe. Mr. Ray informs us, that in his time it wa* 

 cultivated abundantly in the farther part of Cornwall, where 

 it fetched no less a price than Wheat. It is still sown there 

 in the poorest croft-land, that has been tilled two or three 

 seasons before with Potatoes, and, for the uses of the poor, an- 

 swers all the purposes of oatmeal. It is a small yellow grain, 

 and accounted superior to any other nourishment for fatten- 

 ing calves. Mr. Miller says, that the Naked Oat is less com- 

 mon than the others, especially in the southern part? of Eng- 

 land ; but in the north of England, Scotland, and Wales, it 

 is cultivated in plenty. This sort, according to Worlidge, is 

 esteemed, because the grain thrashes clean out of the husk, 

 and need not be carried to the mill to be made into oat- 

 meal or grist. An acre of ground does not yield so many 

 bushels of these, as of the common Oats, because the grain 

 is small and naked, and goes near in measure ; but what ii 

 wanting in the measure, is supplied in value. Naked Oat is 

 called pillis, cirpilez, according to the orthography in Bor- 

 lase ; or pill-corn, from its qu-ility of depositing the husk or 

 chaff: pill, which we now write peel, being formerly put for 

 the outer coat of any sort of fruit. 



8. Avena Futua ; Bearded Wild Oat, or Haver. Panicled ; 

 calices three-flowered ; all the floscules awned, and hairy 

 at the. base ; root annual. It is taller than the cultivated 

 Oat, the culm of straw being commonly three, and frequently 

 four feet in height ; it is erect, firm, leafy, smooth, with 

 four joints or knots; sheaths streaked, smooth ; the seed 

 has a hairy covering. This is one of the most destructive 

 annual weeds, and is too frequently so prevalent among 

 Barley, as almost to choke it. The seed ripens, and falls 

 before harvest, thus filling the ground, in which it will lie 

 several years without vegetating. It cannot easily be extir- 

 pated without repeated fallowing, . or by laying down the 

 land to grass. The awns of this species are sometimes 

 used for hygrometers ; and the seeds, instead of artificial 

 flies, in fishing for trout. 



9. Avena Sesquitertia. Panicled; calices subtriflorous ; all 

 the floscules awned ; receptacles bearded ; panicle oblong. 

 Native of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Piedmont. 



10. Avena Pubescens ; Soft Oat Grass. Subspiked : ca- 

 lices subtriflorous, upper florets hairy at the base ; leaves 

 flat, pubescent ; root perennial. This grass is hardy, early, 

 and productive. Native of Portugal, France, Germany, 

 Siberia, and England, where it grows in. <lry and chalky 

 soils. 



11. Avena Sterilis ; Great Wild Oat, or Bearded Oat-gras*. 

 Panicled : calices five-flowered ; the outer floscules and; 

 awns hairy at the base, the inner ones awnless ; root an- 

 nual ; culms tnree or four feet high, round, upright, smooth; 

 flowers pendulous ; antherse oblong, pale yellow, scarcely 

 emerging from the corolla ; germen oblong, round, hirsute. 

 Native of Barbary and Spain. 



12. Avena Flavescens ; Yellow Oat-grass. Panicle loose ; 

 calices three-flowered, short ; all the florets awned ; it has a 

 perennial creeping root. This grass is found in most pas- 

 tures, especially high ones, in some meadows, and frequently 

 on banks by road-sides. In many of our counties it forms 

 the principal part of the finest pasturage on the downs ; and 

 in some meadows contributes to the goodness as well as 

 greatness of the crop. 



13. Avena Hispida. Panicled : calices three-flowered, 

 2R 



