

CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 105 



ground should be well ploughed and harrowed before the seed 

 is put in, and afterwards harrowed again to cover it. 



Oats require a soil and a climate sufficiently moist. Dry, 

 gravelly, or sandy soils are the most unfit for this grain and 

 particularly in those localities where drought is apt to prevail 

 during the growth of the crop. 



Many farmers seem to act under the impression, that oats, 

 being a hardy crop, will grow well enough without having 

 much done to prepare the ground for their reception. The 

 consequence is, that they obtain only small and unprofitable 

 crops, when, with a trifle more of expense, they might obtain^ 

 crops of a superior order. If oats are to be cultivated on stifi 

 grass ground, the sward should be turned over, and otherwise 

 managed in all respects precisely as if corn were to be planted. 



The quantity of seed usually soivn, varies with the species, 

 the richness of the soil, the equality of the depth at which the 

 seed is placed, and other circumstances. From one and a half 

 to three bushels are sown generally from two to two and a 

 half. Two bushels will certainly be sufficient for one acre, if 

 the sowing is performed at the right season, and the ground 

 be in good heart and properly prepared. The greatest care 

 should be observed in the selection of the seed: the heaviest 

 is estimated the best. 



Gypsum is a suitable manure for this crop. "It should be 

 applied," says the Farmer's Assistant, "after the crop is har- 

 rowed in: as soon as it is harvested, this manure will produce 

 a growth of white-clover, which will be of considerable value 

 for fall-feeding." 



In harvesting oats, it is recommended to mow instead of 

 reaping them, as soon as they begin to turn yellow. If then 

 well dryed, the straw is more esteemed for provender than 

 that of wheat, barley, and rye, and is preferred by some ani- 

 mals to the best meadow-hay. 



The produce, and consequently the profit of oats, varies 

 greatly with the nature of the soil and the mode of manage- 

 ment. Thirty bushels are considered the average in England; 

 and in Scotland, where the culture of the oat is more attended 

 to than in any other part of Europe, sixty bushels are held to 

 be a good crop twenty-five an indifferent or bad one. 



Instances are on record, well authenticated, of very large 

 crops being raised in the United States, in some cases exceed- 

 ing one hundred bushels to the acre. But these are rare oc- 

 currences; crops of from fifty to eighty bushels are frequently 

 raised; but the average growth throughout the country will not 

 probably vary far from forty bushels to the acre. 



Oats vary in weight from thirty-five to forty-five pounds 



