OATS. 



5 



the finest of the European kinds is from Dantzic^ the grain 

 of which is large^ white^ and very thin-skinned; besides 

 almost every port in Europe and North America^ we receive 

 it from Northern Africa, the East Indies, AustraUa, and oc- 

 casionally from the Brazils. The quantity of wheat grown 

 in the United Kingdom is about 144,000,000 bushels, or 

 18,000,000 quarters; in addition to this we import nearly 

 4,000,000 quarters"^. In Great Britain it is estimated that 

 5,000,000 acres of land are annually covered with this 

 grain. 



The next of the cereals in importance is the Oat — Aiie- 

 na sativa — the use of which is also very ancient ; it is not 

 however mentioned in the Scriptures, although frequently 

 referred to by Grecian and Roman writers ; Dioscorides and 

 Pliny both mention it. It is a true grass [Graminace^e) , 

 and is one of the most beautiful of its tribe : nothing can 

 exceed the graceful elegance of the oat, with its large pa- 

 nicles of flowers hanging from their hair-Hke pedicels. 



Although known to the ancients, there is no reason to 

 believe that this kind of grain was common, for even at an 

 early period of the Christian era the tyrant Caligula is re- 

 ported to have fed his horses with gilded oats : we can hardly 



* Vide Braithwaite Poole's Statistics of British Commerce (Art. Corn). 



