OAT. 
epportunity of treading and rolling throughout the fpring, 
the crop at harvelt was very flender, as well in ftraw as grain. 
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in fuch a manner, as to render it in fome degree naked. 
This fort of crop does not require to be fo dry when put 
into the ftack, as thofe of either the wheat or barley kinds, 
The reaping of this fort of crop, where cut low, is a good 
ractice, as in other modes, what is left in the field, is loft 
to the farm-yard. 
General Apphication.— With refpe& to the application of 
this fort of crop, in the northern counties, the meal is free 
quently made into a wholefome bread, and ufed in other 
articles of human food; but in the fouthern diftricts itg 
in the mow, or been otherwife dried, left it thould prove of 
too laxative a quality. 
, In the Materia Medica. Some phyficians have 
formerly recommended a diet drink made of oats, in various 
The method of preparing the drink is as fol- 
t oats, entire an wafhed; one 
bet 
bas) 
1t 
ix ounces of coarfe fugar, and half an ounce of fal prunelle ; 
let it boil again, and afterwards be taken off the fire, and 
fet by, for a day and a night, in a cool place; then pour 
off the clear liquor, and keep it in a cellar in veffels clofe 
ftopped. 
to be continued thirteen days, and, if the patient 
be cachochymic, a gentle purge is to be before it is 
aken. It is accounted a great prefervative againtt illnefs, 
if taken thrice a-year, in f{pring, in autumn, and in the 
days; and the inventor of it, Joannes de St. Catherina, is 
con- 
tinued fevers, but advifes purified nitre to be ufed inftead 
of the fal prunellz, and obferves that the two boilings, 
ordered by Dr. Lower, are not neceffary, but that the 
{ugar and nitre may be added at firft. It muft be kept 
carefully in fummer, otherwife it foon becomes four and 
unfit for ufe. 
Thofe who defire to have it coloured may boil in it an 
ounce of alkanet root, and t unces of red fanders, 
which will give it a fine red colour, without at all affeQing 
its virtues. 
Oats, when freed from their cuticle, are called groats ; 
in which ftate, as well as when ground into meal, they are 
ufed both dietetically and medicinally. In both ftates they 
yield to water by co¢tion the fecula they contain, and form 
a nutritious pa hota gruel, which is beft made b 
0 
kept longer than 48 hours, as it becomes acefcent after that 
eriod. 
Oats have not been chemically examined ; but the greater 
part of their fubftance appears to confift of fecula or ftarch. 
Mm For 
