OAX3. 71 



of these are the black or long-bearded oat ; the white 

 oat ; red oat ; and the naked oat, or pilcorn. 



The best variety of oats produced in Great Britain 

 is unquestionably the potato oat. Of this kind the 

 first plants were discovered growing accidentally on a 

 heap of manure in company with several potato plants, 

 the growth of which was equally accidental ; and it is 

 to this circumstance that the distinctive name of this 

 variety is owing. To an occurrence thus purely ac- 

 cidental, and which might well have passed unnoticed, 

 we are indebted for decidedly the best and most pro- 

 fitable variety we possess of this useful grain. It 

 requires to be sown on land in a good state of cultiva- 

 tion, when the grains on ripening will be found large, 

 plump, and firm, often double, and of a quality 

 which ensures for the corn a higher price in the 

 market than is given for any other variety. It also 

 yields an abundant produce of straw. Potato oats 

 form almost the only kind now cultivated in the north 

 of England and the lowland districts of Scotland. 



The seed-time of oats is almost universally in 

 March and April. The grain is scattered broad-cast 

 in the large proportion of from four to six bushels to 

 the acre, the medium produce of which is from forty 

 to fifty bushels. 



The nutritive quality of oats is smaller in a given 

 weight than that of any other cereal grains. In oats 

 of the best quality it does not exceed 75 per cent, 

 while that of wheat is 95k per cent. The very small 

 proportion of saccharine matter ready formed in 

 oats renders it very difficult and unprofitable to 

 convert this grain into malt. Brewers at the present 

 day do not employ oats in the preparation of any 

 kind of beer ; in former times, when the public taste 

 was different from what it is at present, a drink 

 called mum was manufactured for sale, and in the 



