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crops of both being raised by the Swedes and Norwegians as far as 

 68 deg. N., or within the Arctic Circle ; and, of the two, the grain 

 before us has many advantages over its compeer, not only in this high 

 latitude, but in more favoured lands, especially in its facility of growth 

 in almost every kind of soil, from the lightest and poorest of the sandy 

 class to the heaviest and most retentive clays and loams. Under the 

 old system of working the ground until it wo\ild yield no more paying 

 crops, and then leaving its restoration to the management of nature, 

 oats were usually the last resort of the farmer before fallowing ; and 

 they are stiU among the most generally profitable of his investments, 

 requiring less manure than either wheat or barley, and being pro- 

 ductive upon land that is either too poor or too retentive of moisture 

 to yield well under either of the latter. Oats, indeed, are, under most 

 circumstances, a sure and safe speculation to the . grower, though 

 higher-priced grains may often prove conditionally far more remu- 

 nerative in the market. It must be remembered by the amateur 

 farmer, amidst this laudation, that the oat, like all other kinds of 

 grain, dislikes intruders on its own domain, and that, to derive 

 the full . advantage from a crop, cleanly farming is most essential. 

 It will draw for its own support every atom of nourishment con- 

 tained in the poorest soil, but is liable to be overpowered in this 

 respect by its weed competitors. The oat-growers of Scotland and 

 the Netherlands are well aware of this, and their oat-fields are, in 

 keeping, gardens. 



As human food oats are, bulk for bulk, inferior to the other kinds of 

 European grain, containing, on the average, a smaller proportion of 

 the proximate elements of nutrition than even rye : the amount, how- 

 ever, is still large, being about 743 in the 1000 parts. Of these, 641 

 are starch, 15 saccharine matter, and 87 gluten, albumen, or other 

 nitrogenous compounds. The grain, freed from the husks, is well 

 known under the name of groats, and, as well as the flour, or oat-meal, 

 is regarded by physicians as one of the most easily digestible articles of 

 diet for the invalid, taken either in the form of gruel or porridge. In 

 Scotland and Ireland, and in the North of England, coarse oat-meal 

 stirred into boiling water, and flavoured with a little salt and treacle, 

 either with or without milk, constitutes a considerable portion of the 

 food of the labouring population, nor is it at all uncommon at the tables 

 of those of higher rank. Perhaps no kind of corn_ is adapted in 

 a greater variety of ways to the purposes of nutrition. Oatmeal, 

 added to the water in which meat or cabbage of any sort has been 

 boiled, forms a valuable and palatable accompaniment to the daily 

 meal of our northern countrymen, under the denominations of leef-lrose 

 and hail-brose ; while, made into dough and baked in thin cakes on a 

 hot-iron plate, it is the favourite bread of those unaccustomed to the 

 flavour of that made from wheat ; and, from its former all but universal 

 use as such in Scotland, our sister kingdom acquired its title of the Land 

 of Cakes. In many of the colder districts of contmental Europe, the 

 oat is of no less importance than it is in the British Islands. The 

 haber-ineel of Germany, largely used, both there and in Switzerland, 

 for thickening and rendering nutritive their otherwise thin and poor 



