24> , WHEAT. 
firm persons. More frequently, however, they are 
ground into oatmeal, which is made into cakes, biscuits, 
&c. The husks, infused in water, and allowed to re- 
main till the water becomes somewhat acid, are boiled 
to a jelly called sowins. A grateful and nutritive kind 
of jelly, which has the name ^flummery, is also made 
of oatmeal, boiled with water, and flavoured with a 
little orange-flower water, and sugar. 
Oats will thrive in almost any soil, but they are 
chiefly productive on land that has been newly broken 
up. They are usually sown in February or March, 
and the harvest commences about August. Several 
kinds or varieties are cultivated in different parts of 
England, such as white oats, black oats, brown or red 
oats, Tartarian or reed oats, Friezeland oats, Poland 
oats, and some others, but, of these, the first are con- 
sidered the most valuable. 
29. WHEAT is a well known kind of corn (Triticum hy- 
bernum, Fig. 13) which is cultivated in most of the civilized 
countries of the world, and is supposed to have been originally 
introduced into Europe, from some part of Asia. 
No grain is so valuable to the inhabitants of nearly 
all climates as this ; and, by a wonderful ordination of 
Providence, it is rendered capable of sustaining, with- 
out injury, almost the two extremes of heat and cold. 
Not only does it ripen in Egypt and Barbary, but it 
ripens equally well in Scotland, Denmark, and Sweden. 
It constitutes the chief food of the British nation ; 
and its abundance or scarcity regulates, in a great de- 
gree, the welfare and prosperity of the inhabitants. 
The whole annual consumption of grain, in this island, 
amounts to nearly 5,000,000 quarters; and in London 
alone, to more than 1,162,100 quarters. Of this by 
far the greatest proportion is wheat. 
For the cultivation of this important grain the best 
lands are rich clays and heavy loam ; and, although 
light soils will produce wheat of excellent quality, yet 
the crops on the other soils are by far the most abund- 
