112 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



cause, and by selection or systematic impregnation 

 new kinds may be originated at pleasure. Degen- 

 eracy in any variety usually takes place in a limited 

 time, unless care is taken to select the best heads 

 and well-ripened grains for seed. Some English 

 farmers are at the pains to select the best seeds after 

 the grain is threshed. 



It is found by experience, that of the numerous 

 cultivated varieties, the Potato and Poland are the 

 best selections for lowland, and the red oat for good 

 uplands ; the common or the black oat may be sown 

 on inferior soils, as may also the 'I'artarian. The 

 numerous instances given in the Farmer of the as- 

 tonishing productiveness of the Tartarian, show that 

 it is a variety well adapted to our soils and climate. 



In the sowing of oats, less regard may be had to 

 soil than with any other grain : the only requisite 

 seems to be that it is not too wet. Tenacious clays 

 or poor gravel, where scarcely any seed-bearing 

 plant will grow, will produce a crop of oats if plough- 

 ed at tlie proper season, and if the seed be of good 

 quality and judiciously put in. " The best oats, both 

 in quantity and quality, are those which succeed 

 grass ; indeed, no kind of grain seems better quali- 

 fied by nature for foraging upon grass-land than oats ; 

 as a full crop is usually obtained in the first instance, 

 and the land left in good order for the succeediug 

 ones." — British Husbandry. 



In England the time of sovving oats is from Feb- 

 ruary to April ; a proof of the great disparity exist- 

 ing between the climate of this country and that ; 

 since here, oats are sown from the last of April un- 

 til June, very few being usually put in during the 

 month of April. It should always be remembered, 

 however, that early-sown oats, as well as spring 

 wheat and barley, are always heavier and of better 

 quality than late-sown, and, as a general rule, all 

 spring grains should be put into the ground as early 

 as the soil can be prepared for their reception. 



