THE OAT CROP. 141 



hardiness, earliness, and adaptation to elevated, poor, and 

 ungenial soils. It is very productive both in straw and 

 grain ; the latter, however, is of a rough and bristly 

 character, inferior in quality, and only adapted for feeding. 

 Poland. This is a variety very generally cultivated 

 in England. Mr. Lawson, however, doubts whether the 

 so-called Poland Oat now met with be the original variety. 

 In general appearance and character it much resembles an 

 inferior sample of Potato Oats. 



No. 2. Of the A. orientalis, Tartarian Oat, we have two 

 well-known varieties the White and the Black both of 

 which are largely cultivated in the south, while in the 

 north the Black is the one generally preferred. This 

 species differs greatly in appearance from the A. sativa, 

 by having its panicle more contracted, and altogether con- 

 fined to one side, and larger glumes. (See following page.) 

 Tartarian (White). A very productive variety ; straw 

 very tall and stout ; grain of a dull white colour ; thin 

 and long; forming a light sample. It is late at harvest, and 

 only suited for good soils in early districts, when its yield 

 in horse-corn is very large. 



Tartarian (Black). This is far more extensively cul- 

 tivated in the south as well as the north than the White. 

 It is an earlier variety, and grows best on the inferior 

 class of soils and in high districts. The straw is shorter, 

 and equally stout ; the grain is shorter and plumper, of a 

 dark-brown or blackish colour; meals well, and makes 

 a capital sample for feeding purposes. The yield is, under 

 favourable circumstances, very large. 



This brief sketch of the principal varieties in cultivation 

 is sufficient to show the very wide range of soils and 

 climate in which the oat, in some of its varieties, can be 

 successfully grown. These points, however, will be found 

 far more fully discussed by Mr. Lawson in his Synopsis 

 of Vegetable Products, and in his valuable paper on the 



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