61 



for any otlier grain ; and it will grow on every kind 

 of soil, from tlie stiffest clay to the lightest moss or 

 bog-, if it l)e dry enough. For lowlands, the potato 

 and Poland oat is the best ; for inferior soil, the com- 

 mon white, and for the poorest of all, the black oat 

 is fittest.* In regular rotations, oats are chielly 

 sown after grass; after which it always succeeds best, 

 as a full crop is usually obtained in the first instance, 

 and the land is left in good order for succeechng crops. 

 In a former mmiber I told you how to sow oats on 

 lay or grass lands — simply by harrowing : but instead 

 of beginning your rotation with oats, you commence 

 with potatoes or wheat, at a heavy expense of tillage, 

 and you take crop after crop of oats at the end of your 

 rotation exhausting the ground completely, and then 

 letting it out with dirty hay seeds to recover its fer- 

 tility as well as it may. Land sown with potato oats 

 takes less seed, in point of measure, than any other 

 kind ; first, because it litters better, and secondly, be- 

 cause, having no awn, a greater number of grains are 

 in any given measure. No preparation is ever given 

 to the seed, but it should be plump, fresh and free 

 from seeds of weeds. The l)est time for sowing is 

 about the middle of March. Autumn oats are gene- 

 rally killed dvu-ing a severe winter, being less able to 

 resist frost than wheat, here, or rye. This last grain, 

 on sandy and moory lands, is a valuable crop for a 

 poor man. It produces well ; the bread made from it 

 is used by all the peasantry in Germany and Russia 

 — Mixed with barley or wheaten flour, it makes a 

 very sweet and wholesome, though coarse and dark 

 colom-ed loaf. The straw is excellent for thatching 

 and collar-making. The climate for rye may be colder 

 than for wheat ; but it is rather more injured by rains 

 in winter and equally injured with wheat by moist 

 weather during the flowering season. It may be sown 



* The black Taitary, a new variety, is both productive and 

 early. 



