There are four leading varieties of this grain culti vated in England ; the white, the black, the grey, and the brown or red : of the white, the subvarieties are very numerous; but the most common are the common white, the Tartarian,, the Dutch, the Poland, and the potatoe oat: the black and grey are little cultivated: the red is confined principally to Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire. Besides these kinds, a species of naked oats, called provincially pillar, are grown in Cornwall.
Oats are almost always, in every part of the kingdom, the first crop after the breaking up of old grass land. They are also sown generally on strong land, after clover ley; and in the north of England, they succeed clover on most kinds of soil. Besides coming in this rotation, they are sown sometimes after turnips; and where the husbandry is bad, they are taken as the last crop before fallow, even when the ground is dirty and exhausted. In the southern counties of England, the end of Febru ary, and in the midland and northern counties, the mid dle or end of March is usual seed-time. They are very seldom drilled. The usual quantity of seed to the acre is five bushels. Perhaps the produce of no species of grain varies more than that of oats. Where the ground is foul and exhausted, not more than 20 bushels are ob tained; but on rich soil well managed, eight, nine, and sometimes ten quarters, ha‘e been prceureil, In most parts of England they are mown, except when the crop is very strong. They are generally, but not always, carried loose into the baru-ard. Mare they are put up in stacks.
Beans are grown on almost all the strong lands of the kingdom, which are under the plough ; and their cul tivation probably has not extended, as, according to the old rotation pursued when most of the land was in common fields, they, preceded by wheat and followed by fallow, formed the whole course of the husbandry of our ancestors. But though their cultivation is very ge neral, there are few counties in which it is well con ducted. Perhaps Gloucestershire in the west of Eng land, and Kent and Essex in the south, may be pointed out, as the counties where the culture of this plant is conducted with the greatest judgment, skill, and suc cess. In these and some other counties, they are plant ed in rows or clusters, and carefully weeded, both by the horse-hoe and the hand. They are generally grown after wheat, oats, or clover ley ; and are put into the ground as soon in the spring as the weather will permit.
The bean harvest, in every part of the kingdom, is late, generally ten days or a fortnight after all the white corn is cut down. The produce varies from 16 to 40 bushels. Pease are very little cultivated in any part of the kingdom, except in the vicinity of the metropolis, as a garden crop. Where grown as a farm crop, they generally succeed clover ley, wheat, barley, or oats. The produce, in consequence of the unsettled nature of our climate, is very uncertain and various.
Tares are principally grown as spring food for sheep, cattle, or horses. In the south of England, there are two kinds: the winter and spring. The former, sown in the autumn, is ready to cut in the month of April or May; but this kind does not come to perfection in the northern counties. The latter kind is sown in March, and is cut in the autumn. Buck-wheat is seldom seen in England. A little of it is cultivated in Norfolk and some other counties, where the soil is light and poor, and permitted to remain till it is ripe; in other parts, it is ploughed down, as a manure, while in flower. The three kinds of clover, red, Dutch, and yellow clover, or trefoil, are very generally grown, but to a greater ex tent, and with more success in the eastern, southern, and northern counties, than in the western or midland. The cultivation of red clover after barley, and as a pre paration for wheat, is considered as one of the proofs of superior husbandry, in those districts where it is exten sively and regularly sown in this rotation. In the north of England, rye-grass is commonly sown along with clover, where hay is the object; but in the south, and particularly in the vicinity of the metropolis, clover is sown alone. Dutch or white clover is used principally in laying down land to grass. Sainfoin not thriving well, except where the soil or subsoil is calcareous, is not met with generally. On the Costwold hills, and on the chalk soils of Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Hert fordshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, it is extensively cultivated. It generally remains for eight or ten years; a much longer period, according to A. Young, than it is found to do in France. It is made into hay, and the after crop eaten by sheep or cattle. Lucerne, nearly allied to sainfoin in its character, habits, and properties, is not grown to any extent, except in some districts of Sussex and Kent.