Book VI. OATS. 827 



observes, has taken place to a certain extent in the potato oat ; but it is presumed that 

 the consequences might be removed with ease, vrere first principles returned to. To 

 make a selection of the strongest ears, which carried the purest grain, is not a difficult 

 business ; and were this selection attended to by half a dozen farmers in a district, it is 

 obvious, that the breed, or variety, might be preserved pure and uncontaminated. If 

 slovenly farmers were not provided with good seed, it would be their own fault ; since, 

 if they would not take the trouble to select and breed for their own use, they might 

 always be provided by those who were either better qualified for making the selection, or 

 were more attentive to the interests of agriculture. (Broum.) Some of the Northum- 

 berland farmers have been at the pains to select the grains, instead of the ears, after 

 being threshed. The best seeds are picked out by hand by women. 



5133. In choosing a sort from among the varieties described, the potato and Poland 

 are the best for lowlands, and the red oat for uplands and late climates in a state of 

 good cultivation. For inferior soils the white or common oat, and for the poorest of all 

 the black oat, may be adopted. 



5134. The soil for oats may be any kind whatever, from the stifTest clays to moss or 

 bog, provided it be laid sufficiently dry. The most tenacious clays, and meagre gravels 

 and sands, where scarcely any useful seed-bearing plant, except buck-wheat, could be 

 grown, will produce a crop of oats if ploughed at a proper season, and the seed judi- 

 ciously sown and covered. 



5135. The preparation of the soil for oats is less than for any other grain. It is almost 

 always the first crop on newly broke-up lands ; and as it prospers best on a soil not too 

 finely pulverised, it is commonly sown on one earth. In regular rotations, oats are 

 chiefly sown after grass ; sometimes upon land not rich enough for wheat, that had been 

 previously summer-fallowed, or had carried turnips ; after barley, and rarely after wheat, 

 unless cross-cropping, from particular circumstances, becomes a necessary evil. One 

 jiloughing is generally given to the grass-lands, usually in the month of January, so that 

 the benefit of frost may be gained, and tlie land sufficiently mellowed for receiving the 

 harrow. In some cases a spring furrow is given when oats succeed wheat or barley, 

 especially when grass- seeds are to accompany the crop. The best oats, both in quantity 

 and quality, are always those which succeed grass ; indeed, no kind of grain seems better 

 qualified 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 succeeding ones. (^Tr. 

 on Rural Affairs. ) 



5136. T'lie climate for oats should be cool and moist ; when dry and warm, the panicles 

 are so dried and contracted that they cease to convey sufficient nourishment to the ears, 

 which thus never become plump, but thick husked, long awned, and unproductive in 

 meal. This is very often the case with the oats in Scotland in a very dry year, and very 

 common in the south of England in most years. 



5137. The season of sowing oats is from the last week in February to the end of April. 

 About the middle of March is preferred by the best farmers. No preparation is ever 

 given to the seed ; but it should be plump, fresh, and free from the seeds of weeds. 

 Common oats sown in autumn are generally killed during winter, the plant being in this 

 respect more tender than wheat, rye, or barley bigg. In some parts of Ireland, and 

 especially in the county of Dublin, the Friezland oat is sown in autumn ; and the 

 advantage is they ripen nearly a month sooner than those sown in spring, an important 

 object in a moist climate. 



5138. The quantity of seed, where oats are sown broad-cast, is usually from four to six 

 bushels to the acre. Land sown with potato oats requires less seed, in point of measure, 

 tha'n when any of the other sorts is used : first, because this variety tillers better than any 

 other ; and next, because having no awn, a greater number of grains are contained in a 

 bushel. 



5139. The mode of sowing oats is almost universally broad-cast; but where they are 

 sown after turnips, or on other well pulverised soils, some adopt the row culture. 



5140. The after-culture depends on the mode of sowing, but seldom consists of more 

 than weeding before the flower-stalks begin to shoot up. 



5141. In harvesting oats in England, they are generally cut down with the scythe, and 

 carried loose to the barn or stack ; but in the northern districts, and where threshing 

 machines are used, whether mown, or, what is most usual, reaped with the sickle, 

 they are tied in sheaves to facilitate the process of threshing. Oats are ready for 

 the scythe or sickle when the grain becomes hard, and the straw yellowish. They 

 should generally be cut before they are dead ripe, to prevent the shedding of the grain, 

 and to increase the value of the straw as fodder. They rarely get much damage when 

 under the harvest process, except from high winds, or from shedding, when opened out 

 after being thoroughly wetted. The early varieties are much more liable to these losses 

 than the late ones ; because the grain parts more easily from the straw, an evil to which 

 the best of grain is at all times siilyect. Early oats, however, may be cut a little before 



