212 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



with the history of wheat and barley, we have again to say 

 in connection with oats. All we know, indeed, of the time 

 and place and manner of their introduction into the cate- 

 gory of animal food is, that we know nothing. All is 

 conjecture, and conjecture, moreover of the vaguest kind ; 

 less frequent mention is made of the crop in those documents 

 which take cognizance of the other cereals ; and in Holy 

 Writ no mention is made of it at all. In the records of 

 Ttonian History the same absence of direct information re- 

 specting it is noticeable ; although a curious indirect yet 

 sufficiently suggestive testimony respecting it is met with 

 in the statement or story that the Emperor Caligula, in 

 the very arrogance of wealth, fed his horses with gilded 

 oats, from which, if we like, we may draw a moral of some 

 suggestiveness to us all. Eepeating the stereotyped infor- 

 mation we possess on the history of the oat, which being 

 met with everywhere where the subject is discussed, is 

 excuse enough for its being mentioned here writers state 

 that its origin may be traced to Persia or Mesopotamia ; 

 and, in corroboration of this, the fact is stated that Colonel 

 Chesney found growing wild on the banks of the Euphrates, 

 a variety of oats, which, although very unlike our oats, 

 Dr. Lindley says may yet be their progenitor. Having 

 given this, we give all the information we know as to the 

 history of this crop, and proceed therefore to the more in- 

 teresting, because more practical details connected with its 

 cultivation. 



1 6. Oats belong to the class (in the natural system) of Di- 

 cotyledonous plants, the order Graminse, and the genus 

 Avena. The number of species is considerable, some nam- 

 ing them up to fifty ; but of these, by far the greater num- 

 ber are of no agricultural value as cereals, being, in fact, 

 but grasses or weeds ; this reduces the food oats, so to call 

 them, to the following families, under which all the varieties 

 of oats cultivated in this country are classified. These are 

 (1) Avena sativa, or the common oat ; (2) A. Orientalis, the 

 Tartarian oat; (3) A. brevis, the short oat ; (4) A. nuda, the 

 naked oat ; and (5) A. striosa, the bristle-pointed oat. The 



