SOILS AND CLIMATE ADAPTED FOR THE OAT. 221 



mate adapted for the oat crop, the writer above named (Mr. 

 Haxton)has given a most suggestive, if not the most exhaust- 

 ive resume. We shall therefore do well if we present to 

 our readers a condensation of this. Scotland is selected, and 

 selected with precise judgment, as the " type of an oat- 

 growing country;"' with a cool climate, the mean maximum 

 in the hottest month of the year, and in the warmest dis- 

 tricts not exceeding, the soil is peculiarly adapted for the 

 crop. The climatic or weather influences which affect the 

 oat crop are different from those which affect the barley 

 and the wheat; so much is this the case, that we have no 

 difficulty in knowing if from no other sources of informa- 

 tion than that of the market prices that where the first 

 price is got for the barley or the wheat of any district, that 

 the oats of that district will not be good ; and the converse 

 of this holds equally good. For instance, the wheat and 

 barley grown under proper conditions in districts south of 

 the Humber are as superior to those grown to the north of 

 the Tweed, as the oats grown to the north of the Tweed 

 are as superior to those grown to the south of the Humber. 

 Nor is this marked difference traceable to any difference 

 very marked in character between the geological formations 

 of the soils ; doubtless these differences do exist, but in no 

 way so marked as to account for the differences we have 

 named as existing between the quality of the crops. The 

 opinion is thus likely to be a true one, that the difference 

 arises more from a difference in climatic than in geological 

 causes ; this influence or opinion is corroborated by the fact 

 that as we proceed northwards and westwards in England, 

 we come to districts adapted for oat growing. This view 

 receives further corroboration in taking into account the 

 " extraordinary results that have been produced by certain 

 climatic aberrations which have -occurred within the pe- 

 riod of the present century. Thus, in the very dry sum- 

 mer of 1826, the oat especially in the drier districts 

 was an extremely light one ; while, on the other hand, the 

 wheat crop was an extremely good one, bearing a marked 

 resemblance to the superior quality of south of England 



