OATS. 397 



popularity in the South it has in the North. Nor has it 

 ever been exported to the same extent as the other grains, 

 the supply barely furnishing the home demand. In the 

 early and middle ages it formed a chief constituent of the 

 food of man, and even now, in several European countries, it 

 is preferred by many people to any of the cereals. Oat- 

 cake in Scotland is as common as "bakers' bread" with us. 

 Those who eat it claim that it produces long-windedness, 

 and the mountaineer, with his loaf of oat bread, will walk 

 over the steep, broken country of the Highlands with as 

 much facility as an American will over his broad prairies. 

 It is found growing wild in California, and in several of 

 the Pacific islands, but it may have been scattered there by 

 some of the voyagers in their landings for water. 



This cereal forms one of the most important of the grains, 

 and is, with the exception of wheat, more generally culti- 

 vated than any other. In America it is only raised for 

 stock. It contains more nitrogenous matter and more su- 

 gar than corn, but less starch and fat, and where used for 

 food for man it has maintained its popularity through all 

 vicisitudes. 



There are numerous varieties of oats, some quite distinct 

 and well marked, while others are nothing more than the 

 ordinary changes produced by good cultivation and climatic 

 influences. The common "black oat/ 7 the "white oat," the 

 "Spanish oat," "Chenailles oat," "potato oat," "Hopetown 

 oat," "black Prussian," "great flag," "Cumberland," "white 

 Swedish," "yellow Lithuania," "white Tartarian," "black 

 Tartarian," "black Poland," "late and early Angus," 

 "Egyptian," "Barbary," and an endless list of local names 

 that only result from some particular circumstance of soil 

 or cultivation, are the most common varieties in use. 



A few years ago some man professed to have found in a 

 package of seeds received from Norway a few grains of oats, 

 and by manuring well they were grown into a monster oat 

 that sold at fabulous prices, as a distinct variety. In 1788 



