OAT 



OAT 



rus putator), which severs the young 

 branches ; these contain the insect, 

 and if collected in the autumn, when 

 just fallen, and burned, will serve as 

 a means of destroying them. 



A K U M. The yarns of hemp, 

 which are spun into ropes. 



OASIS. A green spot in a desert ; 

 usually a valley. 



OAST, OAST-HOUSE. A drying- 

 house, heated by hot air circulating 

 in pipes or flues. It differs in this 

 respect from a kiln, in which the 

 smoke and heat pass into the grain. 

 It is used in drving hops and malt. 



OAT-FIELD LAND. Open or un- 

 enclosed arable land. 



OAT GRASS. The Avena genus. 

 See Grasses. 



OAT MEAL. The flour of oats, es- 

 pecially the Scotch oat ; it is exten- 

 sively employed for cakes, like bat- 

 ter cakes, and for porridge or brose. 

 Oat meal is very nutritious, and fre- 

 quently much more so than wheat or 

 corn, this point depending upon the 

 proportion of gluten or albumen they 

 contain. The oat meal cakes are al- 

 lowed to ferment slightly, so as tc 

 become acid (lactic acid) before being 

 used. For the production of meal, the 

 oats are first kiln-dried, then passed 

 through a coarse-set mill to separate 

 the hull or shellings ; this forms 

 groats or grits, and they are then 

 ground in a mill into a coarse meal. 



OATS. Avena saliva. A cultiva- 

 ted annual of the gramineous family. 

 Other varieties of the avena are also 

 cultivated, as the A. oricntalis, Tar- 

 tarian oat, with a one-sided head ; 

 the A. slrigosa, or bristle-pointed oat. 

 The varieties of the common oat are 

 classified into the black, gray, and 

 white ; of these, the black kinds are 

 smallest and lightest, but most hardy ; 

 and the white kinds best, especially 

 the imperial, potato, Georgian, and 

 the Dutch or Friesland oat. The 

 Polish oat is one of the finest of the 

 black kind, but requires careful till- 

 age, and scatters. It is urged as an 

 objection to the potato oat that the 

 skin is too hard, so that they are oft- 

 en voided by horses unbroken ; it, how- 

 ever, yields the most meal, and rises 

 526 



to 46 pounds the bushel. The com- 

 mon black and gray varieties are 

 often less than 25 pounds the bushel, 

 I and seldom reach 30 ; but the Polish 

 is said to reach 50 pounds. 



Oats do better nortli of Philadel- 

 phia than south, although they can 

 be cultivated to the Gulf of Mexico ; 

 their habitat is, however, northern. 

 This plant grows so rapidly in a good 

 soil that it is not uncommon to ob- 

 tain two crops in a year, especially 

 if they be cut for fodder while the 

 grain is in the dough. A good yield 

 is 50 bushels, but 90 bushels have 

 been taken from well-prepared soils. 

 The straw varies from H to 3 tons 

 the acre. As food for horses, no- 

 thing except beans can be compared 

 with oats ; Indian corn is much too 

 oily : while oats contain about four 

 per cent, of oil, Indian corn rises 

 above 10 per cent. In point of nu- 

 tritiousness they are also superior to 

 corn, and are equal to double their 

 weight of fine hay : the straw of a 

 greenish tinge is the best kind of ce- 

 real straw for fodder, and about a 

 quarter the value of prime hay. A 

 draught horse should receive from 

 seven to nine pounds of oats daily, 

 with as much prime hay and straw : 

 this is the ration for the heavy French 

 cavalry. The following is by the 

 Rev. W. L. Rham : 



" The great use of oats, and the 

 ease with which they are raised on 

 almost every kind of soil, from the 

 heaviest loam to the lightest sand, 

 have made them occupy a place in 

 almost every rotation of crops. Of 

 all the plants commonly cultivated in 

 the field, oats seem to have the great- 

 est power of drawing nourishment 

 from the soil, and hence are justly 

 considered as greatly exhausting the 

 land. AVith proper management, a 

 crop of oats may give as great a prof- 

 it on the best land as any other crop, 

 when it is considered that it requires 

 less manure and produces an abun- 

 dance of straw, which is very fit for 

 the winter food of horses and cattle, 

 especially when aided by roots or oth- 

 er succulent food. 



" To make a crop of oats profitable 



