f MARCH. lig 



OATS. 



White 'oats should be sown now, in preference 

 to any other season ; and, in the general conduct 

 of them, the farmer should, by all means, avoid 

 the common error of sowing them 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 pro- 

 fitable to sow barley on land in good order than 

 oats. I am, from divers experiments, inclined to 

 think, that oats will equal, and in many cases ex- 

 ceed barley. The superior quantity of the produce 

 will ever be found to more than answer the inferio- 

 rity of the price; which, however, sometimes ex- 

 ceeds that of barley. 



What good reasons are to be offered, for sowing 

 oats on land in such bad order that barley is not 

 to be ventured in, I know riot. The common ar- 

 gument is their hardiness, which will give a mid* 

 ciling produce, about sufficient to pay expcnces, 

 and leave a trifling profit, when no other crop will 

 do the like. But this is only proving them to be 

 assistants of bad husbandry; nor is such a paltry 

 profit, granting false premises (for I am well per- 

 suaded that common oat crops, among bad fanners, 

 are but so much loss), an object that ever ought to 

 influence good husbandmen. Why shqitld a good 

 farmer be at all solicitous to gain 10s. an acre profit 

 by oats after barley. See. ? Suppose his course to 



1 4 be. 



