On the Cultivation of Oats. 



115 



when well grown, and the straw is of a pale yellow colour and 

 moderately bulky. The young plants tiller freely when the 

 seed is not too thickly sown, and the stems usually stand re- 

 markably close and carry a large bushy ear, which gives the 

 crop a remarkably luxuriant and rich appearance when fully 

 shot out. The grain weighs from 40 to 46 lbs. per bushel, 

 and it yields more meal per quarter, weight for weight, than 

 any other variety. Instances are within the writer's knowledge 

 where 27 Scotch pecks = 236^ lbs. of meal have been obtained 

 from a quarter of potato oats, and in one case the yield was 28 

 pecks — 245 lbs. of meal from one quarter. In ordinary years 

 potato oats of 42 lbs. per bushel will yield 24 pecks = 210 lbs. 

 of meal per quarter. When the weight per bushel falls below 

 40 lbs. in ordinary years, it is a sure indication either that the 

 soil is unsuited to the growth of potato oats, or that proper atten- 

 tion has not been bestowed in changing the seed from a different 

 and better locality. 



The best soils for potato oats are black land and reddish 

 coloured loam of a firm but not clayey texture. When such 

 soils are properly managed the yield of grain in good years will 

 often reach 10 quarters, weighing from 42 to 44 lbs. per bushel. 

 This oat is also well adapted for being cultivated on sharp trap 

 (whinstone) soils, and also on the better classes of granite soils. 

 On soft, peaty land the crop is apt to lodge, and on light gravelly 

 or sandy soils the grain degenerates very rapidly — a sure indi- 

 cation of which is the development of the awn, or spike, at the 

 thin end. On clay land the cultivation of potato oats is exceed- 

 ingly precarious, owing to the liability of the young plants to 

 become sedge-rooted when there is a superabundance of rain in 

 spring or the earlier part of summer. A considerable experi- 

 ence in growing different kinds of oats has led the writer to 

 choose the potato oat in preference to all others as the most re- 

 munerative. The soil is a light brown trap, very thin in some fields, 

 easily made fertile by sheep- foldings with the under-lying rock 

 protruding through the surface in many parts. In moist summers 

 the yield of potato oats is about 6 qrs. per acre, on such land. 

 This oat requires to be cut before it is ripe, as it is very apt 

 to shed its seeds in moderately high winds when quite ripe. 



Sandy Oat. — This variety, according to Lawson, was discovered 

 in 1824-5, on the farm of Miltoun of Noth, in the parish of 

 Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, by a herd boy, Alexander (Scottice 

 Sandy) Thomson, who found it growing on a bank of recently 

 thrown up earth. It was carefully preserved by his master, Mr. 

 Pirie, and propagated from year to year, and now it is extensively 

 cultivated in almost every district of Scotland. The Sandy oat 



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