^108 



On the Cultivation of Oats. 



of alluvial loam, with partial outbursts of trap through the sur 

 face, produces oats of a quality so superior as to weigh 44 to 

 46 lbs. per bushel, while the yield often reaches 10 and 12 

 quarters per imperial acre. The county of Fife, situated on the 

 opposite side of the Firth of Forth, also produces fine crops of 

 oats. The southern part of this county is similar in many 

 respects to the Lothians — the soil being composed of a mixture 

 of trap debris and red and yellow sandstone deposits. The 

 northern portion is entirely composed of the various kinds of 

 trap, greenstone, basalt, amygdaloid, and porphyry, sometimes 

 distinct and isolated, but more commonly blended together. All 

 soils derived from these rocks are more or less productive of 

 oats, and even the thinner and drier portions towards the upper 

 parts of the hills yield bulky crops of oats if sheep-folded, and 

 laid down two years to grass. The lower parts furnish a deep 

 rich alluvium upon which excellent crops can be grown with 

 little trouble or expense. 



The mountain limestone soils also produce good crops of oats, 

 but they require to be more highly manured than the freer traps 

 and loams. When properly drained, and otherwise in good con- 

 dition, these yield large crops of oats, but the quality of the grain 

 is never equal to that obtained on those first-mentioned. In dry 

 summers, however, the mountain limestone soils are often more 

 productive of oats than the drier and freer ones are, owing to the 

 more retentive nature of the subsoil. 



On the clay soils of the Carses of Gowrie and Stirling, derived 

 principally from the old red sandstones, the cultivation of oats is 

 very precarious, and the yield greatly depends on the character 

 of the seed time. When the ground has been properly mellowed 

 by exposure to frost, the sowing season dry, and the summer not 

 too wet, very heavy crops of oats are obtained on Carse land, but 

 iinless all the circumstances be favourable the oat crop is sure to 

 prove an inferior one, and hence it does not occupy so prominent 

 or important a position in the rotations followed on such soils as 

 wheat. Oats are found to succeed best on clay land, after a crop 

 of red clover, and the stronger the clover is, the better is the corn. 

 The roots of the clover, no doubt, tend greatly to open up the 

 soil, and to render it more friable and less apt to consolidate 

 around the tender rootlets of the oat plant. Whenever we get 

 beyond the edge of these clay basins we find a much lighter soil 

 lying on the outskirts, where the cultivation of oats becomes 

 highly successful, and on which this crop may be allowed to form 

 a regular part of the rotation. 



The soils in England which are analogous in their agricultural 

 character to the Carses of Scotland are the Wealds of Kent, 

 Surrey, and Sussex, the Gault of Cambridge and Huntingdon- 



