THE OAT CROP. 211 



thin or in rows. But as M. Bodin well remarks, " it 

 would be better to destroy the weeds by second hoeing or 

 cleaning, than to run the risk of spoiling your crop, which 

 there is great danger of, if it is left to fight its way amongst 

 the weeds." Weeds and crops must be always antagonistic ; 

 good farming has for its only aim the growth of the crops, 

 and its most untiring and energetic efforts all conspire to 

 prevent the growth of the weeds. M. Bodin concludes his 

 paper by giving a saying, which, although soritewhat 

 exaggerated in tone, carries with it, nevertheless, a vast deal 

 of truth " The worst weed for the corn is corn." On this 

 point of thick and thin sowing, Mr. Keary, the author of 

 the Prize Essay on Barley, of which we have already given a 

 resumd, states that he is inclined to adopt a middle course 

 between the extremes of thick and of thin sowing. " From 

 eight to ten pecks per acre in kind and genial soils will 

 generally suffice ; but on unkind land, in imperfect tilth, 

 it may occasionally be necessary to sow a larger quantity." 



CHAPTER SECOND. 



THE OAT CROP. 



15. THE next of the cereal crops demanding our attention 

 is oats that crop, the produce of which was defined by 

 the able but at times somewhat surly English Moralist, as 

 " food for men in Scotland and for horses in England ;" but 

 the lurking prejudice of which definition was well met by 

 the smart rejoinder, " Yes, true enough, but where will you 

 meet with such men and such horses." Notwithstanding 

 this deprecating estimate of the value of the oat, the crop is 

 not only in Scotland, but in many parts of England, an 

 important one. In Scotland, indeed, in some districts, it 

 is not second in importance to any of the cereal crops ; if 

 behind wheat, in the estimation of farmers there, certainly 

 before barley. What we have had to say in connection 



