232 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



firmness in the soil; and notes, that he has known wheat 

 land so " fearfully trodden during the winter (by no means 

 an unusual circumstance in hunting districts, when a large 

 number are in at the death) that all vestige of the wheat 

 plant has been destroyed ; and yet, at the following harvest 

 the wheat crop on such portions has been very superior." 

 This condition of soil the oat could not bear up against,, 

 for although it requires a firm, it cannot do with a hard 

 soil. No soil suits the oat better than a ploughed-up turf; 

 so that conversely, the oat is the best crop to take off a 

 strong turf. Thus, in the North of England, where the turf 

 of a clover lea even often becomes too rank for the wheat, 

 the oat comes in excellently as a substitute ; cases, indeed, 

 are not often met with there, in which either wheat or 

 barley can displace the oat crop in newly ploughed up old 

 and rich turf. The oat crop is remarkable for penetrating 

 and breaking up turf ; indeed, there is no corn crop so 

 valuable for this the turf presenting precisely that con- 

 dition of soil required for the habits of the plant; and 

 where the seed requires a light covering, the soil is exposed 

 to the action of frost, and lightly tilled. To get the con- 

 dition of soil necessary, the land should be ploughed 

 " moderately moist," but it should be thoroughly dry when 

 broken down for the sowing of the seed ; these points 

 must be attended to, for if the land was worked down at 

 seed time in that moist condition which favours the solidity 

 of the furrow when the land is being ploughed up, the 

 surface soil would be too close and adhesive to enable the 

 seed to germinate properly. 



32. If oats are sown upon turf, the seed should be sown 

 earlier than if they follow roots or a bare fallow. To early 

 sowing, this objection may be made, that exposing the 

 early plants to frost, the blades may become bluish as if 

 they were injured; but to this maybe answered, that even 

 if this does result, the plants rapidly recover. Some have 

 the notion that oat plants do not stand the frost well; this, 

 however, is a mistake ; a very remarkable experiment was 

 made many years ago in sowing oats at Christmas. The 



