PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 229 



28. While excellent crops of oats can be got off first- 

 class soils after rye-grass or clover, cut for summer soiling 

 or for hay, on second class soils, to have them of the neces- 

 sary fertility, it is necessary to pasture them with sheep 

 for one year, or graze them with cattle for two, before 

 breaking up the grass land for the oats. Where the grass 

 is, however, cut for hay the first year, the after-grass should 

 be depastured, and sheep folded on it the following winter, 

 these being fed with turnips, cakes and grain. If this is 

 done, giving one acre of turnips to three acres of the lea, 

 the manuring the land will receive in this process will be 

 as good as that obtained by depasturing the grass with 

 sheep for one, or with cattle for two years. When the 

 soil is inferior, the grass should be kept down, as we have 

 already stated, at least two years ; but all the better crops 

 of oats and succeeding crops will be obtained, if three 

 years be the period. 



29. Although climate has a remarkable influence on the 

 oat crop, irrespective of the condition of the soil, still the 

 preparation of the land for the crop is a matter of great 

 importance. Generally it may be stated that, resembling 

 in its habits of growth the wheat more than the barley 

 plant, a good, deep, well-stirred soil is necessary for it ; 

 the roots having more of the descending vertical develop- 

 ment of the wheat, than the lateral development of the 

 barley plant. Further, although loving a moist climate 

 and soil, a thoroughly wet one is prejudicial in a high 

 degree to the oat ; well drained, in addition to deeply 

 stirred soil, is therefore essential, if indeed the one can be 

 obtained without the other. In Scotland, the ploughing 

 of lea for the oat crop is looked upon as one of the nicest 

 operations which the ploughman is called upon to perform, 

 and is carried out with the most'scrupulous care, the pride 

 of the ploughman being bound up in its beautiful execu- 

 tion. The lea ploughing is not usually begun till near the 

 New Year ; but it is in February the frosts then being 

 not so severe that the principal labour is performed 

 in this department. The older and tougher lea land 



