50 
On  the  Climate  of  the  British  Islands 
around  Limerick,  on  which  wheat  is  grown  successfully  ; but  it  is 
said  ter  be  inferior  in  quality,  not  yielding  so  much  saccharine  matter 
by  from  10  to  15  per  cent,  as  average  English  wheat.  But — 
109.  Barley  may  be  grown  in  Ireland  with  great  advantage ; its 
climate  on  the  south  and  east  appears  particularly  adapted  to  this 
grain,  and  where  it  has  been  properly  cultivated  the  yield  has 
been  large;  some  districts  in  Wexford  have  been  long  noted  for 
their  great  crops  of  barley. 
The  eastern  counties  of  England,  from  their  light  warm  soils 
enriched  with  chalk-marl,  and  their  superior  climate,  must  con- 
tinue to  raise  the  best  samples  of  mal  ting-barley ; but  where  the 
slate  is  mixed  with  trap,  and  especially  where  the  soil  on  the 
honeycomb-dun  is  found  in  the  west,  I have  seen  most  abundant 
crops,  which  cannot  be  excelled.  The  sheltered  position,  warm 
mild  climate,  and  the  fragmentary  nature  of  the  soil  in  parts 
of  Hereford,  renders  it  a locality  highly  favourable  to  barley,  and 
large  crops  are  grown.  The  new  red  sandstone  soil  in  Warwick, 
Leicester,  and  Nottingham  is  prolific  of  barley.  In  fact  in 
England  the  distribution  of  the  culture  of  this  grain  is  governed 
by  the  soil  rather  than  the  climate. 
Bore  is  confined  to  the  north,  but  it  might  probably  be  intro- 
duced to  the  high  late  lands  of  the  south  and  west  with  advantage. 
110.  Oats  are  grown  best  on  districts  too  cold  and  moist  for  other 
grain  ; the  border  parts  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  have 
long  raised  large  quantities.  In  Ireland  the  oat  has  had  almost 
universal  dominion.  Sir  Charles  Coote  says,  that  in  Cavan  the 
oats  were  to  other  grain  in  the  proportion  of  seventy  to  one.  And 
throughout  the  whole  island  at  the  present  time  ten  acres  of  oats 
are  raised  for  one  of  other  corn. 
The  superior  cereals  have  in  Scotland  excluded  the  cultivation 
of  the  oat,  as  far  as  the  climate  will  permit ; but  in  Ireland,  espe- 
cially in  the  warm  mellow  climate  of  the  southern  parts,  this 
inferior  grain  is  still  largely  cultivated,  where  wheat  and  barley 
might  be  grown  to  great  advantage. 
The  following  distribution  of  the  amount  of  grain  raised  in  the 
British  Isles  is  extracted  from  M'Culloch  : — 
Quarters  of 
Wheat. 
Bailey. 
Oats. 
England  and  Wales  . 
12,350,000 
3,000,000 
13,500,000 
Oats  including 
lleans  in  Eng- 
land. 
Scotland  .... 
GGO,000 
980,000 
5,757,500 
Ireland  .... 
Not  ost 
imated. 
10,000,000 
13,010,000 
4,580,000 
35,257,500 
