826 PRACTICP: of agriculture. Part III. 



5115. O/j0o^6a;/<'y there are two sorts, pearl and Scotch; both are produced by grinding off the husk, 

 and the pearl barley is produced by carrying the operation so far as to produce roundness in the kernel. 

 It is used in soups, gruels, and medicinal drinks. 



5116. Barley meal is ground like oatmeal or flour ; the coarser sort, with the bran, is used for fattening 

 live stock, especially pigs and poultry ; but fine bolted barley flour, made into a thin pottage or pudding, 

 and spread out in thick cakes, and toasted on a hot plate of metal, forms a light breakfast bread, much 

 esteemed in some i)arts of Scotland. It is served in a recent state, hot, and spread with butter and honey, 

 and eaten in several folds. Two parts of barley flour, one of wheat flour, and one of rye, are said to make 

 a light and very agreeable loaf of bread. 



5117. The produce of barley injlour is 12lbs. to 14lbs. of grain. Sir H. Davy found 

 1000 parts of barley meal to afford 920 parts of soluble or nutritious matter; viz. 790 of 

 mucilage or starch, 70 of sugar, and 60 of gluten. 



5118. Barley straw is chiefly used for litter and packing ; it is unfit for thatch or rope- 

 making, and of little value as fodder. 



5119. The diseases of barley are few, and chiefly smut, but of quite a different species 

 from that which affects the wheat, and one which it is found cannot be prevented by 

 pickling and liming. 



Sect. IV. The Oat. Arena sativa L. ; Triandria Digynia L., and GraminecB J. 

 U'Avoine, Fr. ; Haber, Ger. ; Vena, Ital. ; and Avena, Span. 



5120. The oat is a very useful grain, and more peculiarly adapted for northern climates 

 than either wheat, rye, or barley. Its native country is unknown, unless the wild oat be 

 considered as the parent species, which is highly probable. The culture of the oat in 

 France is chiefly confined to latitudes north of Paris. It is scarcely known in the south 

 of France, Spain, or Italy ; and in tropical countries its culture is not attended to. In 

 Britain it has long been very generally cultivated, formerly as a bread corn, but now 

 chiefly as horse-food. Of all the grain this is the easiest of culture, growing in any soil 

 that admits of ploughing and harrowing. 



5121. The varieties of oats are more numerous than those- of the other grains, and 

 some of them are very distinctly marked. The principal are as follows : 



5122. The white oat or common oat {Jig. 727. a), Avoine blanche, Fr., in most general cultivation both in 



England and Scotland, and known by its white husk and 

 kernel. 



727 



^ 



)123. The black oat, Avoine a grappe fioi'r, Fr., known by 



its black husk ; cultivated on poor soils, in the north of 

 England and Scotland. 



512+. The red oat, known by its brownish red husk, 

 thinner and more flexible stem, and firmly attached grains. 

 It is early, suffers little from winds, meals well, and suits 

 windy situations and late climates. It is understood to have 

 originated in Peebleshire, on the estate of Magbie-hill, by 

 which name it is sometimes known. 



5125. The Poland oat, known by its thick white husk, 

 awnless chaff, solitary grains, short white kernel, and short 

 stiff straw. It requires a dry warm soil, but is very prolific. 

 /' it \ f y^ Jl^g^''^^l'i f ^-Jx -s^ (II Vif^^'f l'-^^ ^^^ black Poland oat is one of the best varieties ; it some- 

 //| ^J^^* TK^^^^^Si/ ^"^'^l^kWl 'ii'iV^ CPv times weighs .501bs. per bushel. It is, however, very liable to 

 \i rifh >yfflKV^\li rf\s=J|\\ v\V IpIuu m^ be shed by the wind after it begins to ripen ; it requires a 

 A f TII^sJ^^^OjNCTV '11^ fine dry tilth. 



' ' 5126. The Friexland or Dutch oat, ha.sTiAumY>,t\i\n-s\AX\x\edi, 



white grains, mostly double, and the large one sometimes 

 awned. It has longer straw than the Poland, but in other 

 respects resembles it 



5127. The potato oat has large, plump, rather thick, 

 skinned, white grains, double and treble, with longer straw 

 than either of the last two sorts. It is almost the only oat 

 now raised on land in a good state of cultivation in the 

 north of England and south of Scotland, and usually brings 

 a higher price in the London market than any other variety. It was discovered growing in a field of 

 potatoes in Cumberland, in 1788; and from the produce of the single stalk which there sprung up by 

 accident, probably from the manure, has been produced the stock now in general cultivation. 



5128. The Georgian oat, is a large, grained, remarkably i)rolific variety introduced from Georgia, by R. 

 Barclay, Esq. of Bury Hill, to Britain and the north of Europe. On rich soil in good tilth, Mr. Barclay 

 finds it vield more grain per acre than the potato oat or any variety whatever. 



5129. The Siberian or Tatarian oat {b), is considered by some as a distinct species. The grains are 

 black or brown, thin and small, and turned mostly to one side of the panicle; and the straw is coarse and 

 reedy. It is little cultivated in England, but found very suitable for the poor soils and exposed situations 

 on the sides of the Dublin and Wicklow hills. 



5130. A variety called the winter oat, Avoine d'hiver, Fr., has lately come into notice in some parts of 

 England, but we have not been able to ascertain its origin. Mr. Bennett of Chaxhill, near Gloucester, 

 sows two bushels per acre in October ; finds the plants very luxuriant at Christmas, tillering like wheat : he 

 depastures them with ewes and lambs all the spring, and then shuts them up, and reaps an ample crop early 

 in August. The grain is rather longer than that of the white oat, and the colour rather lighter than that of 

 the black oat ; Mr. Bennett received the seed from a friend in Monmouthshire, who he conjectures 

 received it from Bristol, so that it is probably a recent importation. {Country Times, Feb. 8th, and Cor. 

 with Mr. Bennett.) . 



5131. There are other varieties, as Church's oat, the Angus oat, the dun oat, &c., but they are either too 

 local or obsolete to require particular notice. In the oat, as in other plants extensively cultivated, new 

 varieties will always be taking the place of old ones. 



5132. To procure new varieties adopt the mode by selection, by which, as it appears 

 above, the potato and red oat were brought forward ; or proceed systematically by cross 

 impregnation, as directed for raising new varieties of wheat. Degeneracy, Brown 



