106 



On the Cultivation of Oats. 



plant. Scotland, however, may he considered as the proper type 

 of an oat-growing country. Its climate is cool — the mean maximum 

 temperature of July not exceeding 6S' Fahr. in ordinary years, 

 even in the warmest parts of the country ; and the soil is generally 

 well adapted to the growth of oats — there being no chalk deposits 

 like those of Surrey and Wiltshire, and a very inconsiderable 

 amount of sands like those that prevail in the county of Norfolk. 



The meteoroloo:ical influences which affect the orowth of the 

 oat plant, differ considerably from those that control that of wheat 

 and barley ; so much so, that the very causes which conspire to 

 render its cultivation more successful in Scotland and Ireland 

 than in South England, give these countries a climatic character 

 far less favourable to the growth of wheat and barley. We have 

 only to glance at the market prices of the different descriptions of 

 grain in each country in order to be made aware of the fact, that 

 the wheat and barley grown in proper soils to the south of the 

 Humber, excluding the Fens, are as superior to those grown to 

 the north of the Tweed, as the oats of the latter country are to 

 those of the former. The geological characters of the two districts 

 of country alluded to are, no doubt, considerably different, but 

 they are not sufficiently so to account for the fact that the more 

 northerly produces, even with very ordinary cultivation, excellent 

 crops of oats both as to quality and quantity. The fact also that 

 the cultivation of oats becomes more successful as we proceed 

 northward and w^estward in England, leads to the inference that 

 the increased capabilities of these districts for growing this grain 

 are due in a great measure to climatic causes, and not to the 

 physical or chemical nature of the soil. This position will appear 

 the stronger, if we take into consideration the extraordinary 

 results that have been produced by certain climatic aberrations 

 which have occurred within the period of the present century. 

 The hot, dry summer of 1826, rendered the oat crop in Scotland 

 an extremely light one, especially in the drier districts, but in the 

 cold high-lying land where the maximum temperature was more 

 moderate, it was an average crop ; and in some cases where the 

 land was in good order, even considerably above it. The wheat 

 crop of 1826, on the contrary, was the finest ever seen in Scotland, 

 and bore a marked resemblance to the superior quality of that 

 grown in South England in moderately warm years. These facts 

 show the influence of climate on the productions of a country, and 

 although the case adduced in illustration is no doubt an extreme 

 one, it proves that similar atmospheric causes produce similar 

 results irrespective, in a great measure, of the geological character 

 of the soil, and that the nearer the climatic conditions of Scotland 

 in any year, approach to those common to South England, the 

 worse is the crop of oats and the better the produce and quality 



