PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 101 



whole course of vegetation, the crop must be kept 

 free from weeds : a condition, if well observed, that 

 will secure an abundant produce.* 



X. Of Oats. 



Oats is among grains what the ass is among an- 

 imals, very little respected, but very extensively 

 employed. The levis avena of Ovid, and the ster- 

 iles dominantur aven<R of Virgil, show the degrees, 

 both of use and abuse, with which it was regarded 

 by the Romans. In modern times, a great literary 

 authority! describes it as food for Scotch men and 

 English horses. It is probably this its state of deg- 

 radation among poets and philosophers, that deter- 

 mined the botanists of Europe to give to America 

 the honour of having produced it. Mr. Adanson 

 found it growing spontaneously in Juan Fernandez ; 

 whence the philosophers wisely concluded that it 

 must be a native of Chili ! But in this conclusion 

 they appear to have equally forgotten the laws of 

 nature and the decisions of history ; for the quota- 

 tions with which we began this article show that 

 oats were cultivated in Italy many centuries before 

 the existence of America was known to any Euro- 

 pean, and few are ignorant that Chili is among the 

 hottest and driest regions of the globe, and that 

 oats perish in dry and hot climates. 



Of the many different species or varieties of this 

 grain, the black and the white are those which best 

 deserve cultivation, because most hardy and pro- 

 ductive. In the poorest soil, and with the smallest 

 possible labour, they give something; but because 

 they do not give much, in circumstances under 

 which other grains would give nothing, we infer 

 that the grain itself is a poor one, and, at the same 

 time, a great exhauster of the soil. We owe to 

 Mr. Dranus a series of experiments and calcula- 



* In a favourable season, under good management, the white 

 oenn gives thirty for one. 

 t Or. Johnson. 



