406 CEEEALS. 



straw are equivalent to 100 lbs. of good English hay, or 

 65 lbs. of the grain of barley, or 60 lbs. oats, 58 lbs. rye, 

 or 55 lbs. of wheat ; and Thaer places the estimate still 

 greater. 



Bouissingault gives, for the green oat straw, water, 82.0; 

 starch, 5.0; woody fibre, 7.5; sugar, 3.5; albumen, 1.0; 

 fatty matter, 0,5; and mineral matter, 0.5. 



It has been remarked before, that but little of this crop 

 is ever exported. On the contrary, in the year 1851, 

 679,812 bushels of oats were imported, and also 302 r 400 

 bushels of oatmeal. In 1858, this amount had decreased 

 to 115 bushels oats, and 106,288 bushels oatmeal. 



In the year 1875, there were exported 504,770 bushels 

 oats; and in 1876, 1,466,228 bushels. This however forms 

 but a small portion of the crop, for in 1876 there were 

 raised in the United States, 320,884,000 bushels. 



In 1876, there were raised in the State of Tennessee, 

 5,400,000 hushels on 306,818 acres, averaging 17.6 bushels 

 per acre, and the average price was 39 cents, making the 

 value of the crop $2,106,000. 



I have not deemed it necessary to speak of the Barbary 

 oat, which is a two awned oat, growing on the deserts of 

 Asia and Africa. The long twisted awns or beards are so 

 sensitive to moisture, that they will work like an insect 

 under the influence of the weather, forming a poor hy- 

 grometer. They were once sold as barometers all over the 

 country, the awns being affixed to a index. 



RICE. — [Oiyza sativa.) 



This grass has a long panicle, resembling, when ripe oats, the seed 

 growing from a short pedicel starting from a central stalk. Bach ker- 

 nal has an awn, glumes yellow. The stem is short, pointed, hollow 

 and about three feet high. It is an annual. 



Rice is a native of Asia, but was brought from the 

 Island of Madagascar to Charleston, South Carolina, and 

 was first grown by Landgrave Smith in that city. The white 



