OATS. The great use of oats, and the ease with which they are raised on almost every kind of soil, from the heaviest loam to the lightest sand, have made them occupy a place in almost every rotation of crops. The best oats are raised in Scotland and in Friesland, and in both countries the land is carefully cul tivated. In Scotland, oats are generally sown on a grass layer which has been in that state for some years, and sometimes on old pas tures, which are broken up for the purpose. A heavy loam is best suited for oats : they require a certain degree of moisture, and a deep soil is very favourable to their growth. On poor moist land oats are more profitable than barley. Clover and grass seeds may be sown among them with equal advantage, as they will seldom grow so high as to be laid and smother the young clover ; and barley is very apt to fail on land subject to retain the water. Six bushels of oats are often sown on an acre ; but if they are drilled, four bushels are sufficient, and when dibbled, which is some times the case in Norfolk and Suffolk, much less seed is used. The produce of an acre of oats varies according to the soil and prepara tion, from four to eight and even ten quarters.
In respect to the use of oats, they are given in some countries to horses in the straw with out thrashing them ; and where the quantity can be regulated the practice is good. The
horses masticate the corn better in the chaff, and the straw is wholesome; butwhere horses do hard work, they would be too long in eating a sufficient quantity, and it is better to give them oats thrashed and cleaned, with clover hay cut into chaff. his estimated that a pound of good oats gives as much nourishment to a horse as two pounds of the best clover, or sain foin hay. A truss of bay of,56 pounds is there fore equal to 28 pounds of oats ; or a bushel of tho best oats will go as far as one truss and a half of hay ; and if this quantity is worth four shillings, which is at the rate of 41. Hs. per load of thirty-six trusses, the equivalent price of oats is 32s. per quarter.
The oats and oatmeal imported in 1849 amounted to 1,292,707 quarters, at an average price of 17s. Bd. per quarter. The imports were almost entirely from Northern Europe— Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Prussia, Hanover, and Holland. The quantity im ported in 1850 was rather less than that in 1849.