128 



On the Cultivation of Oats. 



after lea, apply in a great measure to the oat-growing districts of 

 England and Scotland, but with regard to the south and south- 

 eastern counties of England I have considerable hesitation in 

 expressing an opinion as to the propriety or impropriety of aban- 

 doning the present practice there of sowing wheat after lea, and of 

 substituting oats in its stead. In the Norfolk system oats are in- 

 admissible unless substituted for barley, and neither are we pre- 

 pared to advise this; but v/ere it considered desirable to alter 

 this system, in order to lengthen out the period betw^eenone crop 

 of clover, or turnips, and another, oats might be introduced as the 

 means of doing so. Thus the Norfolk course, consisting of clover, 

 wheat, turnips, barley, might, on good soils, give place to clover, 

 wheat, beans, oats, turnips, barley, or on light soils to grass pas- 

 tured two years, wheat, peas, oats, turnips, barley. In the first of 

 these rotations the acreage amount of clover and turnips would be 

 diminished, but the produce per acre would be increased in con- 

 sequence of the same crops only recurring every sixth, instead of 

 every fourth year. The six-course rotation in Scotland is dif- 

 ferent from this, the succession being grass, oats, beans and 

 potatoes, wheat, turnips, barley with seeds, or on some fine soils, 

 grass, oats, potatoes, wheat, beans, barley. On good clay soils 

 oats might very properly follow clover, and v/heat be sown after 

 beans, but it is doubtful if the Norfolk farmer, occupying a turnip 

 soil, will ever be induced to allow oats to take the place of wheat. 



On soft alluvial or gross soils, where barley cannot be grown 

 v/ith profit, even in a dry climate, and wheat only at lengthened 

 intervals, the cultivation of oats becomes essential to an alternate 

 system of cropping. We have the choice either of taking grass, 

 oats, turnips, wheat, or of grass, wheat, turnips, oats. The indi- 

 vidual crops are the same in both cases, but the practical points 

 connected with them are somewhat different. Thus wheat can 

 be sown under much more favourable circumstances after grass 

 than after turnips, and from getting it earlier sown the quality of 

 the grain will be greatly superior also. In Scotland, Ireland, 

 and the north of England, it is doubtful if wheat should ever be 

 made systematically to assume the place of oats, because, under 

 ordinary circumstances, as profitable crops of the latter can be 

 obtained without manure as of the former with it — which is ex- 

 actly the reverse of what happens in the southern part of the 

 island, where wheat can be grown with less expense than oats. 

 The subject thus resolves itself into the two following proposi- 

 tions : — First, oats can only be cultivated successfully in south 

 England at a greater expenditure of labour and manure than 

 what is required in Scotland ; and, secondly, they can never be 

 substituted profitably for wheat or barley on light soils situated 

 in a dry and hot climate, at least as long as the present relative 

 prices of grain continue. 



