OAT. 



OAT 



for the poorest exhausted soils, producing the 

 most straw on those sorts of any other variety. 

 The oat can be profitably cultivated upon, per- 

 haps, a greater variety of soils than any other 

 of the cereal grasses. It may be grown, too, 

 successfully with less preparation of the soil, 

 and less manure. The oat plant, however, 

 succeeds best in fresh soils, in newly broken 

 up o'.d pastures, and in those abounding in or- 

 ganic matters. 



The organic manures by which the oat crop 

 is best nourished, appear to be green manures ; 

 fish, especially those like sprats, abounding in 

 oil, and, in fact, all those of a readily decompo- 

 sable description. Recently-drained marshes, 

 peaty soils after being dressed with lime, 

 newly enclosed commons after being chalked, 

 all usually yield large crops of oats. 



The land intended for oats should be plough- 

 ed, if possible, especially on clay soils, in the 

 previous winter, or at least as early in the 

 spring as possible: this is a practice almost 

 always adopted by the best farmers of our 

 island. A still more common course of crop- 

 ping is to sow oats after turnips, or other green 

 crops, and especially on the four-shift system 

 with grass-seeds. 



A miserable custom still prevails in some 

 parts of England, of taking two crops of oats 

 in succession, or an oat crop after wheat or bar- 

 ley. Arthur Young long since denounced this 

 as bad husbandry. After observing that white 

 oats should be sown in March, in preference to 

 any other season, he remarked, that "in the 

 general conduct of them the farmer should by 

 all means avoid the common error of sowing 

 after other corn crops, by which they exhaust 

 the land. They should always receive the 

 same preparation as barley, nor ought a good 

 husbandman to think of their not paying him 

 as well for such attention as that crop. It is a 

 very mistaken idea to suppose it more profit- 

 able to sow barley on land in good order than 

 oats. He was, from divers experiments, in- 

 clined to think that oats will equal, and in 

 many cases exceed, barley. The superior 

 quantity of the produce will ever be found to 

 more than counterbalance the inferiority of the 

 price; which, however, sometimes exceeds 

 that of barley." 



Oats are commonly sown from March to 

 April, but it is very probable that they might 

 be advantageously sown much earlier in many 

 situations, and when on grass leys generally 

 broadcast : from 4 to 6 bushels per acre i/ 

 seed is the ordinary quantity. By the drill, 

 after turnips, a much less quantity will be suffi- 

 cient. I have known from 10 to 11 quarters 

 per acre grown year after year from only 2 

 busnels of seed. 



They are usually cut in the south by the 

 scythe in the north and western portions of 

 Britain by (he sickle; and they should never 

 be allowed to become perfectly ripe before they 

 are cut. The usual produce varies from 25 to 

 150 bushels per acre. In the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire, and in Essex and Suffolk on land pre- 

 viously dressed with 35 or 40 bushels of sprats 

 per acre, the yield is usually much more con- 

 siderable. 



The weight of a bushel of oats varies from 

 856 



[ 35 to 45 pounds, and 14 pounds of oats com- 

 monly yield about 8 pounds of meal. 



The following table will show the quantity 

 | of meal that is usually extracted from certain 

 ! weights of oats ; and though different results 

 j may be obtained by various qualities and sea- 

 sons, yet the progressive ratio of the produce 

 will generally be found nearly similar. 



Weight per Bushel. 



42 Ib. 

 40 



Produce in Meal. 

 25 Ib. 2oz. 

 23 6 

 21 12 



Produce of Husk. 



16 Ib. 14 oz. 



16 10 



16 4 



15 13 



15 5 



14 11 



13 5 



Oatmeal is a well-known article of food ; it 

 is the flour from which, in the northern portion 

 of Great Britain, the bread of the working 

 classes is partly procured. The oat-seed was 

 examined by Sir H. Davy; he found in 1000 

 parts of Scotch oats 743 of soluble or nutritive 

 matter, composed of 641 mucilage or starch, 15 

 saccharine matter, and 87 gluten or albumen. 

 In 100 parts of oats from Sussex, 59 parts of 

 starch, 6 of gluten, and 2 of saccharine matter, 

 33 husk. 



The principal demand for oats in Great Bri- 

 tain is for horses. Its use for bread is chiefly 

 confined to the northern districts. Meal is em- 

 ployed also for various domestic purposes, 

 feeding pigs, dogs, &c. ; and it has been used 

 in brewing ale, and in the malt distilleries ; 

 but for this purpose its value is much inferior 

 to that of barley. 



The seeds were analyzed by Schraeder ; he 

 found in 227-8 grains of ashes, obtained from 

 2 Ib. of oats- 



Silica - - - - 

 Carbonate of lime (chalk) 

 Carbonate of magnesia 

 Alumina (clay) - 

 Oxide of manganese - 

 Oxide of iron - 



Grains. 

 144-2 

 33-75 

 33-9 

 4-5 

 6-95 

 4-5 



227-8 



The analysis of M. Vauquelin rather differs 

 from this ; he found in 100 parts of the ashes 

 of the oat 



Silica 

 Phosphate of lime 



Parts. 

 60-7 

 39-3 



100- 



But by burning the whole plant, stalk and 

 seed together, he obtained a residuum com- 

 posed of 



Silica .... 

 Phosphate of lime 

 Potash ... 

 Carbonate of lime 

 And some oxide of iron. 



Parts. 



55 



15 



20 



5 



M. Saussure obtained from 100 parts of the 

 ashes of the seeds of the oat 



Pirts. 



Soluble salts ..... 



Earthy phosphates ... - 24 



Silica ....... 60 



Metallic oxide ..... 0-25 



Loss ....... 14-75 



100- 



