OATS.

The Oat is a hardy grain, and is suited to climates which are too cold for wheat or barley, and it generally thrives better in high regions, than in low-lying countries. On this account, the cultivation of oats has greatly contributed to the improvement of waste lands in Ireland, Scotland, and the northern parts of England; and taken in connexion with the artificial grasses, and the improvement of live stock, the benefits which its cultivation has conferred upon the country are very important.

There are numerous varieties of oats, which are difficult to discriminate, as they change very much in appearance when long cultivated on the same soil. They may, however, be classed into two general divisions,early and late; or, as they are commonly called, hot seed and cold seed. The hot seed kinds ripen early, and are useful for exposed cold soils, or late spring sowing. The cold seed sorts require a longer time to come to maturity, and ought, therefore, to be grown on warmer soils, and to be sown earlier in the spring.

Of the early varieties, the Angus, the black oat, the dun, the potato, and the Hopetown, are most generally cultivated. The early Angus sort produces good grain, but its straw is deficient, and the same may be said of the potato kind. The black oat is grown to advantage in cold and exposed districts, and although its grain is black, the meal is white, and as good as that of any other sort. It is well adapted for newly reclaimed land, and it is to be regretted that its culture is not more generally attended to. The dun oat yields as abundantly as any other kind, and from the thinness of its husk, it is very productive of meal; the straw, however, is harsh and coarse. The Hopetown is a valuable description of oat, and well suited for high exposed districts. The Tartarian oat, is excellent for strong but poor soils, and has been found superior for this purpose to the potato oat. It has produced as much as 25 barrels to an acre off such land, when the potato qat did not exceed 16 or 18. This oat is well calculated

for exposed situations, not having a tendency to shed too freely.

When land is first broken up from pasture, oats generally form the first grain crop. They may also follow clover, and are sometimes sown with clover and grass seeds. They often follow potatoes and green crops, and in either of these cases, the land should be ridged up in the winter. When the seed is sown, the land should be well harrowed, and then rolled across the ridges. A change of seed from the hot to cold, and from the cold to hot kinds, is always to be recommended; and the quantity of seed must depend on the nature of the soil, and the variety to be sown. On poor soils, from the plants not spreading, oats should be sown thick. The Hopetown, and some other varieties, do not tiller out, and therefore require more seed to be sown. The quantity of seed necessary, varies from twelve to fourteen stone per statute acre,* and broadcastsowing is generally adopted.

The usual time of sowing oats, is from the middle of February to the middle of May. Early sowing is to be preferred, as the grain is then generally of better quality; but late sowing produces the greatest bulk of straw. Care must be taken to sow only when the ground is dry; but the precise time between the two periods above specified, must be governed by the weather, climate, and other circumstances. Thus, sowing commences near the coast, in the counties of Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, and Meath, in February, whilst on the northern and western, and even on the southern coasts, it does not commence until the middle of April. The same variation holds good with respect to peaty lands, and the highland districts of the interior. Rich soils require later sowing than poor ones, the crops being too luxuriant; while poor soils are the better for early sowing, in order to increase the luxuriance of the crop.

Ireland and Scotland seem better adapted for grow ing oats than England, and in the former countries greater attention is paid to the cultivation of this grain than in the latter, where the poorest soil is generally selected for it. The produce differs according to the soil

*

For the proportions of the Statute and the Irish acre, see page 191.

and climate. The maximum quantity, soil and climate being favourable, may be estimated at fifty bushels, and the minimum twenty bushels per statute acre; the average being about four quarters. Oat straw is preferred to any other as fodder for cattle, it being considered more nutritive.

The oat crop seldom gets much damaged, unless the season be extremely wet or windy: but the early varieties are liable to shed when handled, and therefore require to be cut before they are quite ripe. This, however, should be done with caution, as cutting when too green is injurious. Oats form a considerable portion of the food of the people in Ireland, and also of the peasantry in Scotland, the northern counties of England, and the greater part of Wales; and the chaff, when mixed with turnips or potatoes in a steamer, is good for pigs and cattle. The straw is also much used for stuffing beds, being soft and elastic.

RYE.

Rye is not much cultivated in Ireland, although it produces good crops on indifferent soils, on which wheat would be an uncertain crop. Rye does well on thin soils, and on reclaimed bogs or moors, and its cultivation would therefore seem to be desirable, under the circumstances existing in this country. It is, however, necessary that the soil should be well worked, and kept in good tilth, and free from weeds.

Rye is sometimes sown in autumn, and sometimes in spring. It is particularly useful for sowing with winter vetches, the rye acting as a support to the vetch, and the mixture affords excellent spring feeding. A bushel to the acre is the usual quantity sown in this way. It is sometimes sown on stubble, after one ploughing and harrowing, for green feeding for lambs and ewes in February or March; and this practice, on light gravelly or sandy soils, will serve to improve them greatly.

Rye is much used for bread on all parts of the continent of Europe, and in Wales and some parts of England and Scotland; and it is also mixed with wheat flour for that purpose. It is likewise much used by

distillers, and is roasted and used as a substitute for coffee, in considerable quantities, by the poorer classes.

BEANS.

Beans are much cultivated in the barony of Forth, county of Wexford, where a compost of sea-weed, sand, and earth, is easily prepared, and where the soil is peculiarly favourable for them. They are seldom sown in drills, but are there generally broadcast, which is a very bad, slovenly method, requiring a greater quantity of seed, giving less produce, and losing all the benefit of a fallow for the succeeding corn crop.

In Scotland, beans are universally drilled, and managed with the greatest care, and are proportionally productive. It is there not uncommon to see twenty acres of beans under the drill, in one field, without a single weed being allowed to appear among them.

The cultivation of beans may be recommended, as well on account of the value of the crop, as because, if grown in drills, at a distance to admit a horse-hoe or light one horse plough to work between them, weeds may be effectually kept down, and the ground will thus be left nearly as clean, and as fine as it would be after a naked fallow. In this respect, Beans constitute a good fallow crop.

The bean, like all other plants cultivated for their seed, is an exhausting crop, although less so, it is believed, than any of the corn crops; but from the nature of its growth, and the mode of cultivation which it admits of, it must be also regarded as a cleansing crop, and is well suited to prepare the land for wheat or barley. Beans thrive best on strong clay lands, heavy marls, or deep loams; but sandy soils, or late cold climates, are ill suited to their cultivation.

To ensure the full benefit of a crop of beans, they should, for the reasons above-mentioned, be sown in drills. They may, however, be also dibbled with advantage. In all cases, the ground ought to be ploughed with a deep furrow immediately after harvest, or early in the winter; and as two ploughings in Spring are highly advantageous, especially where it is intended to drill,

the winter furrow may be given in the direction of the former ridges, by which mode the land will be sooner dry in spring than if it had been ploughed across. After this ploughing, the land will be mellowed by the winter frosts, and early in February, if it be sufficiently dry, it should be cross-ploughed, and broken as fine as possible by heavy harrowing. The third furrow either forms the drills, or receives the seed.

The distance between the drills should be regulated by the nature of the soil. On strong land, twenty-four to thirty inches is recommended, to admit the horsehoe or plough to be used between the drills, for on such soils the hand-hoe in dry weather will have but little effect. On looser and poorer soil, the intervals may be something less; and eighteen inches between the rows, will be found to afford room enough for hand-hoeing.

Do not, if you can avoid it, cart out the manure until it is wanted, and when you have it spread, plough it in at once, at least four inches deep. Take the furrow slices at about six inches; and in every third furrow, close to the edge of the cut, let women or children plant the beans, four to six inches apart; then cover the seed with the next furrow slice, and so proceed throughout the field, taking care to regulate the size of the furrow to the width of the drill. After this apply the harrow,

PEAS.

The field pea is but little cultivated in this country, and in England and Scotland its use is understood to be diminishing, since the introduction of the turnip and other green crops; and except near large towns, it has in a great measure given way to the bean.

There are two varieties of the field pea, distinguished, like oats, by the names of hot seed and cold seed, or early and late. The early kind may be sown at any time till the end of May, but the late must be sown in February or March, to give it a fair chance of ripening. The early pea seldom exceeds three or four feet in the length of its straw, and in a favourable season and good soil produces a good crop of grain. The late pea is larger in the grain, and its straw reaches to five or six feet

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