OUR FARM CROPS. 



tivated in some parts of the north of Scotland, and in the 

 Orkney and Shetland Islands, as a bread-corn. 



The range of soils suitable 1 for the cultivation of the oat 

 is, as has been shown, very large; for well-nigh every 

 description of soil, and every climate in which farming 

 can be carried on, we have some variety of oat offered to 

 us for cultivation. The strong, cold clay soils, on the 

 one hand, and the washed gravels and detrital soils of the 

 secondary and older formations, on the other, form, per- 

 haps, the soils which are least suited to its cultivation. On 

 these, however, if the climate be favourable, so as to 

 counteract somewhat the influence of the soil, we fre- 

 quently meet with very remunerative crops. Oats require 

 a moist atmosphere where the soil is of a dry and porous 

 character, or a moist, deep soil where the climate is dry 

 and warm. Where, however, both the soil and the 

 climate are dry, as in the eastern counties of Norfolk 

 and Suffolk and the chalk ranges of the southern coast; 

 or where they are both moist, as along the west coast- 

 line of the country, from Devonshire to the Clyde, we 

 see them less advantageously cultivated. In the former 

 case, the crops are scanty both in straw and in grain; 

 in the latter, the straw is generally too herbaceous and 

 luxuriant to carry a large yield of grain. In all cases, 

 however, we find the soils of a rich loamy character 

 those of alluvial origin and the humous (vegetable) soils 

 met with in the few districts to which a dressing of clay 

 has been given, to be the most productive ; and on these, 

 in a good season, very large returns are obtained. 



In the south we have a large extent of surface occupied 

 by soils of an ungenial character for oats ; and this, com- 

 bined with the general greater dryness of the atmos- 

 phere and increased temperature, renders the cultivation 



1 The papers before mentioned in the High. Soc. Trans, and in the Cyclo. 

 of Agri. may be referred to with advantage in regard to the soils suitable 

 for oats. 



