152 OUR FARM CROPS. 



a more southern and well- cultivated district, as shown in 

 the comparison of two samples of Late Angus the one 

 the produce of home-grown seed, the other of seed from 

 Mid-Lothian. 



In the same volume of the Highland Society s Trans- 

 actions is another report on the same subject, by Mr. 

 Melvin, Bonnington, Mid - Lothian. His experiments, 

 carried on in a very different district from that of Mr. 

 Mitchell, refer to rather finer varieties of grain ; and enter- 

 ing more fully into the economics of the oat crop, he 

 brings out results of considerable importance to the miller 

 or consumer, as well as to the farmer or producer. Mr. 

 Hay's experiments, 1 carried on in Roxburghshire in 1848 

 and 1850, tend to show that, under favourable circum- 

 stances, the finer varieties of oats are the most remunera- 

 tive, and that the most productive returns would be 

 obtained by selecting the varieties for cultivation which 

 from their habits of growth are best adapted to the district 

 in which they are to be placed. More recently, Mr. Suther- 

 land, Dalmore, Ross-shire, 2 in conducting a like series of 

 experiments, as to the comparative yield of different vari- 

 ties in his district, placed the Dyock Oat at the head of 

 the list, as yielding by far the largest returns per acre 

 the Dyock producing 92 bushels, while the Potato Oat 

 produced only 66 bushels to the acre ; whereas, in each 

 of the trials before alluded to, carried on in very different 

 districts, the Potato Oat was equal to the best that was 

 tried. This variety the Dyock seems well calculated 

 for sowing on poor soils, and at high elevations: under 

 such conditions its returns compare very favourably with 

 finer varieties. In some experiments at Kendal, West- 

 moreland, 3 on a poor soil, some 500 feet above the level 

 of the sea, the Potato Oats were ready for harvest on the 



1 High. Soc. Trans, for 1851, p. 177. 2 High. Soc. Trans., 1851, p. 524. 



3 Roy. Agri. Soc. Jour., vol. iii. p. 387. 



