112 



071 the Cultivation of Oats. 



ticularise ; but we may mention that many of the granite soils of 

 Aberdeenshire produce good crops of oats, so also do the better 

 and thicker portions of the blue lias and oolite soils of Glouces- 

 tershire. These may be ranked in the secondary class of oat- 

 producing soils, while the poorer portions of the same formations 

 cannot be placed higher than the third and last group. 



The two first groups are all, with the exception of reclaimed 

 peat, well adapted for the growth of wheat as well as oats, when 

 situated in a sufficiently dry and warm climate. 



The soil and climate of East Lothian are admirably adapted to 

 the growth of all the cereals, leguminous, and root-crops ; but 

 v/ere these disjoined, and a summer climate like that of the south- 

 eastern part of England substituted, there would be a marked 

 diminution in the quantity and quality of the oat-crop, so much 

 does its success depend upon a moderately low summer tempera- 

 ture. Again, were the fens of Lincolnshire exposed to a climate 

 like that of Aberdeenshire, it would be found impossible to grow 

 w^heat upon them with any degree of success. We see therefore 

 that the classification of soils according to their capabilities of 

 producing any particular crop can only be correct when the cir- 

 cumstances of climate, including light^ heat, and moisture, are 

 nearly equal. Thus, for example, the light turnip land of Nor- 

 folk produces crops of oats so inferior as would at once assign it a 

 very low place in the scale, but were the hot, dry summers of that 

 county exchanged for the moist, cloudy skies of the west of Scot- 

 land, the increase of straw and grain would be so great as to raise 

 such land to a secondary position at least in a classification of oat- 

 producing soils. 



The 3rd group of soils are all more or less sterile for oats even 

 when the conditions of climate are favourable, and it is only by 

 the highest cultivation, or by remaining long in pasture, that they 

 can be made to yield an average crop. In Scotland and Ireland 

 there are almost no chalky soils, like those of south England, so 

 that we are unable to determine their capability to produce oats 

 in a cool, moist climate ; but in both of these countries abundance 

 of loose gravelly soils, sandy land, and thin traps abound, and it 

 is only when the season is peculiarly favourable that the cultiva- 

 tion of oats is successful. If therefore it is a difficult and often- 

 times ungrateful task to grow oats on such soils in a cool and 

 moist climate, what must it be on the dry burning soils of Nor- 

 folk, or the chalky downs of Surrey and Wiltshire ? We arrive, 

 therefore, at the conclusion that unless some particular induce- 

 ment to cultivate oats on the lighter class of soils in south Eng- 

 land presents itself, any attempt to introduce this crop into a 

 rotation, to the exclusion of wheat or barley, will prove unremu- 

 nerative. Besides, it is a generally understood fact that oats 



