Or the Cultivation of Oats. 



121 



other months up to harvest. The greatest difference occurs in 

 the mean maximum temperature of July at Thwaite, as com- 

 pared with that of August at Dunino — the former being 

 7P 9' Fahr., and the latter 64^ 9'. The hot months of June 

 and July in south England are very inimical to the gradual ripen- 

 ing of oats, and to obviate this they should be sown early, in order 

 that the plants may be in ear before the hot w^eather is far ad- 

 vanced. The oat seed-time in Scotland extends from the 10th of 

 March to the 10th of April, according to circumstances. In 

 south England oats should be sown early in February, and even 

 sooner if the variety to be cultivated belong to the later sorts. 

 By early sowing the young plants are up and covering the ground 

 before the hot season arrives, and the natural moisture is thus 

 economised and preserved from evaporation. 



The time that elapses from the period of oats coming into ear 

 and complete ripening is much shorter in England than in Scot- 

 land. In the latter it extended to 60 and in some cases to 70 days 

 in the moist summer of 1848, but in drier years it is about 10 

 days shorter than this. It is a common saying that it is "sixv/eeks 

 from earing to shearing " (reaping), but this is undoubtedly m.ore 

 applicable to south England than to Scotland generally, where the 

 usual period is from seven to eight weeks. 



Another important point of inquiry is the variety of oats that 

 should be sown. In the southern part of the island, where this 

 grain is principally used for feeding horses and fattening stock, 

 the main object hitherto seems to have been to obtain as much 

 bulk of straw and as many bushels per acre as possible, without 

 much regard to the quality of either ; and hence we find the coarser 

 varieties — such as the "'Tartarian" and Red sorts — principally 

 cultivated. The straw of these coarse kinds makes very inferior 

 fodder, and the grain vreighs very light in the bushel — more fre- 

 quently 35 lb. per bushel than above it — in consequence of the 

 large proportion of husk it contains. In Scotland, and the north 

 of England, the quality of both straw and grain is a material point, 

 as the former constitutes the principal fodder of live stock from 

 jNIartinrnxas to Whitsuntide, while the latter made into meal is — 

 notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's contemptuous opinion of it — the 

 main article of food of the Scotch and Border peasantry. The 

 Scotch farmer, therefore, cultivates those varieties of oats which 

 yield the greatest amount of nourishment for man and beast, and 

 not those that afford the largest quantity of materials for swelling 

 up the bulk of the manure heap. This opposite practice accounts for 

 the fact that the produce of oats per acre in some of the English 

 counties far exceeds what is obtained in Scotland, so much so, 

 that it is a matter of astonishment to hear of 14 qrs. per acre of 

 Black or Red oats, and this we believe to have been obtained on 



