SOIL ADAPTED TO THE OAT. 223 



rule generally applicable, it may be stated that " wherever 

 a soil has been formed by the alluvium of rocks or strata 

 not characterized by the presence of too great an amount 

 of aluminous or clayey matter, there we have a soil which, 

 if drained and in proper condition, will produce excellent 

 crops of the finer varieties of oats." Such is the soil of the 

 county of East Lothian, and, to a certain extent, also that 

 of the southern part of the county of Fife, the soil of this 

 being composed of trap debris and red and yellow sandstone 

 deposits. All soils derived from trap rock, greenstone, ba- 

 salt, and porphyry, as is the soil of the northern part of the 

 county of Fife, are to a greater or less degree fitted for 

 growing good crops of oats, the lower parts of the districts 

 where these rocks abound affording a rich alluvium capable 

 of growing crops " with little trouble or expense ; " and 

 even in the higher and more thinly covered parts, good 

 crops may be obtained if sheep-folded and kept two years 

 under grass. 



21. Good crops of oats are produced on soils derived from 

 the mountain limestones, but they demand more rich ma- 

 nuring than the freer trap and lower soils. 



22. On the clay wheat soils of the celebrated Carses of 

 Gowrie and of Stirling, the cultivation of oats is not other- 

 wise generally there precarious, much depending upon the 

 character of the seeding time. When the soil has been 

 properly mellowed by the winter's frosts, if the seed-time 

 is dry, and the periods of growth of the crop not too wet, 

 the Carse lands produce very heavy crops; but still, unless 

 all the conditions are favourable, the crop is, as we have 

 stated above, a precarious one, and does not assume the 

 important position in the, rotation which it does in other 

 districts. In clay soils oats are found to succeed best after 

 a crop of red clover the stronger the clover is, the better 

 the oats. On the outer edges of the clay barriers being 

 reached, we come to a lighter class of soils, which produce 

 good crops of oats, so that the crop may in such situations 

 be made to form part of the rotation. 



23. The soils of England similar in character to those 



