near, it is not only quite possible, but highly probable, that one variety will be impregnated by another; bees and other insects carrying the pollen of the flower of one variety to the flowers of the others.

2478. Let a piece of ground be selected for each of one or more varieties of seed to be raised-and spare spaces and corners of ground exist on most farms, which may be converted into nurseries for such a purpose-let the ground receive a little dung; and the best mode of procuring a friable mould upon it is to turn it over with the spade, bringing off the stones and weeds that may be found in it.

2479. Then select the best-formed bulbs of the different kinds, such as those in fig. 38, one kind after another, in the fields in which they are growing: take them up carefully, preserving the roots and fibres in the bulbs as entire as possible, and removing the shaw nearly close to the bulb. On carrying each kind to its respective piece of ground, a trench is made in a line, deep enough to contain the bulb with its root. The bulbs are inserted at 12 inches apart, and as deep as to leave their tops only above the ground, when the earth has been returned into the trench. It is generally recommended to place the rows of the plants at 1 foot asunder, but I should say 3 feet asunder, not only for the sake of obtaining as much air as possible for the plants, but for the purpose of affording room to a person to pass between the rows to watch the seed, when it is near ripe, from the depredation of small birds, which are very fond of turnip-seed. More space will of course be required for the rows placed thus wide apart, but the plants will be stronger, and they will be the better guarded against the birds, which will drop amongst the plants within a yard of the person watching them.

2480. The best time for transplanting turnips is about the beginning of March, before symptoms of spring growth appear in them.

2481. In large and more open pieces of ground, such as a part of the fallow field, the plough may be employed not only to turn over the ground, but to form the

trenches for the transplanting, and the harrow may also be employed for reducing the ground into a mould.

2482. This mode of transplanting the bulb takes a part of the crop of turnips from the animals; and on this account, were it desired to raise turnip-seed on a large scale, it is evident that it could not be done but at the cost of a large proportion of the growing crop. In such a case it is quite possible to raise the seed from seeds instead of bulbs, and this method will be described in its proper season.

2483. It may be proper to caution the young farmer that the ground thus occupied for raising turnip-seed should be protected by a fence against stock, otherwise the crop will suffer severely.

ON THE SOWING OF OATS.

2484. Ploughed lea ground is always sown with oats in Scotland, except where spring wheat and tares may be sown to a limited extent; though in England, wheat, whether in the autumn or spring, is very frequently sown upon it. Besides on lea, oats are sown in Scotland, in the more elevated districts, on land after turnips, in lieu of barley.

2485. After what has been said of ploughing lea ground (780 ;) of the mode of sowing seed by the hand, fig. 202, and by machines, fig. 204; of the properties of different kinds of oats cultivated in this country (1925, &c.,) little requires to be added here on the sowing of oats, but only on the manner in which that operation is finished.

2486. Beans and spring wheat are not sown upon every species of farm; the former being most profitable in deep strong soils, and the latter is only to be commended after turnips, eaten off by sheep, on land in good heart, situate in a favourable locality for climate;-but oats are sown on all sorts of farms, from the strongest clay to the lightest sand, and from the highest point to which arable culture has reached on moorland soil, to the bottom of the lowest valley on the richest deposit. The extensive breadth of its culture does

not, however, imply that the oat is naturally suited to all soils and situations, for its fibrous and spreading roots indicate a predilection for friable soils; but its general use as food among the agricultural population, and its ability to support the strength of horses, have induced its universal culture in Scotland; and it is a remarkable fact, that this plant has adapted itself admirably to the various circumstances in which it is cultivated, most probably owing to its receiving its favourite food everywhere, namely, the decomposed grasses which enrich the soils it grows upon.

2487. All the varieties of oats cultivated may be practically classed under three heads, the common, the improved, and the Tartarian. The common varieties include all those having a pyramidal spike, soft straw, elongated grains possessing a tendency to become awny, and late in reaching maturity. Among the named varieties are the following in common use -early and late Angus, Kildrummie, Blainslie, white Siberian, fig. 184, Cumberland, sandy, and Dyock, (which two last are recent varieties,) and others. It is unnecessary to point out the character istics of each variety, as, in the respective districts in which they are sown, each is considered best suited to the locality in which it is cultivated,—an opinion which may safely be disputed. The four last named are in high repute at present, owing to their recent introduction; and it is probable that every recent variety will answer best for a shorter or longer period. All common oats are sown on the inferior soils, and in the most elevated fields of farms, and the best season for sowing them is the beginning of March.

2488. Of the improved varieties, the potato oat was long cultivated as the only one, fig. 183; but, of late years, the Hopetoun oat has been added to the list. Before it, the Georgian was introduced, but did not succeed. Both the potato and Hopetoun oats have long strong straw, large pyramidal spikes, come early to maturity, and are cultivated on the best and lowest lying ground. The grains are very similar, the Hopetoun being distinguished by a tinge of red on the bosom. These oats are sown a fortnight after the common.

2489. The cultivation of the Tartarian varieties, both black and white, is chiefly confined to England, for the use of horses, and are there called feed oats. I am surprised that this oat continues to be cultivated, being so coarse, as well as disagreeable in the barn with its long hygrometric awns. Its panicles grow on one side of the rachis, fig. 186.

2490. The ploughed lea-ground should be dry on the surface before it is sown, as otherwise it will not harrow kindly; but the proper colour of dryness should be distinguished from that imposed by dry hard frost. It will not be proper to wait until every spot of the field is alike dry, as thorough-draining even will not insure that; though spottiness shown in spring is a good criterion whether land has been enough drained, or where it most requires draining.

2491. Should the lea have been ploughed some time before, and from young grass, the furrow-slices will be found to lie close together at seed-time; but when recently ploughed, or from old lea, or on clay land in a rather wet state, the furrow-slices will not lie close together, but be as far asunder as to allow a good deal of the seed to drop down between them; and when this happens, the seed is lost, as oats will not vegetate from a depth of 6 or 7 inches. In all such cases, the ground should be harrowed a single tine before

sown.

2492. When oats are sown by hand upon dry lea-ground, the grains rebound from the ground and dance about before depositing themselves in the hollows between the crests of the furrow-slices, and thus accommodate themselves to the form of the ground, and are not so liable to form happergawin in sowing as other grains. Were the ground only harrowed along the ridges, so as not to disturb the seed in the furrow-slices, the crop would come up in regular rows as if sown by drill; but as the land is also cross-harrowed, the braird comes up broadcast.

2493. The quantity of common oats usually sown is 6 bushels to the acre; and in deep friable land in good heart, 5 bushels of potato oats.

2494. A man does a good day's work if he sows broadcast 16 imperial acres of ground in 10 hours, that is, scatters 80 bushels of potato oats and 96 bushels of common oats in that time. Some men can sow 120 bushels of common and 100 of potato in the time, that is, 20 acres; and double-handed sowers can sow even more than this latter quantity.

2495. Two sowers keep one seed-carrier fully employed, and if the sacks are not conveniently placed (2311,) one will not be able to supply them both, but 2 seedcarriers will easily supply 3 sowers; and every sower employs 2 pairs of harrows breaking-in after him, with a double tine; so that the number of sowers is regulated by the number of pairs of harrows that a farm can furnish. The arrangement of the labour for sowing an oat-field may be seen in fig. 210, where 2 sowers and 1 seed-carrier are represented, but the harrows of 1 sower are only shown in view.

2496. The tines of the harrows should be particularly sharp when covering in seed upon lea. After the land is broken in with a double tine, it is harrowed across with a double tine, which cuts across the furrow-crests, and then along another double tine, and this quantity generally suffices. At the last harrowing the tines should be kept clean, and no stones should be allowed to be trailed along by the tines, to the injurious rubbing of the surface. On old lea, or hard land, another single turn across or angle-ways may be required to render the land fine enough; and, on the other hand, on free soil a single tine along after the double one across may suffice. In short, the harrowing should be continued as long and no longer than the ground feels uniformly smooth and firm under the foot, there being no hard places, or sinkings by the pressure of the foot. The head-ridges are harrowed by themselves at the last.

2497. The land, after oat-seed sowing, is always water-furrowed in every open-furrow (2361.)

2498. It should also be rolled (2475,) according to circumstances; that is, the young braird on strong land being retarded in its growth, when the earth is encrusted

by rain after rolling, it is safe to leave the rolling until the end of spring, when the crop has made a little progress, and the weather is usually dry. Light friable land should be rolled immediately after the seed is sown and harrowed, if there is time to do it; but the rolling of one field should cause no delay to the sowing of others in dry weather. There will be plenty of time to roll the ground after the oat-seed and other urgent operations at this season are finished, when rolling can be so speedily performed as described in (2475.)

2499. The cutting of gaws should never be neglected in finishing off an oat-field, to carry off water along hollows or by the open-furrow along the lowest head-ridge, as particularly described in (779.) In the best drained fields, gaws may be required in peculiarly hollow spots.

2500. Oats are sown broadcast by machinery as well as by the hand. The machine is the same as is used for sowing spring wheat, and seen in fig. 204. As at first constructed upon two wheels, this machine, when loaded with a full complement of oat-seed, was too heavy for a horse's back, especially on going down hill; but the addition of the third wheel disposes of the objection, and I believe the machine is now extensively employed in the sowing of corn. The land is harrowed after the seed is sown with the broadcast sowing machine, the same as after sowing by the hand.

2501. Oats are also sown in rows by such drill-machines as are represented in figs. 205 and 206. In using a drill-machine, the land should first be harrowed, a double tine along, and then a double tine across the ridges, and again a single tine along. The drill then sows the oats across the ridges, and the land is finished by harrowing a single tine also across the ridges. The water-furrowing and rolling should be executed in the manner just recommended for broadcast sowing.

2502. The drill seems to me not well adapted for sowing corn on lea-ground. The coulters cannot pass through the soil, even after it has been well cut with the harrows, with the facility they do through

ground in other states; and on hard ground and upon old lea, it is questionable whether the coulters can penetrate so far as to deposit the seed at a depth to be out of reach of birds and drought; and every stone in such soil being firmly imbedded, will be apt to cause the drill to go out of its proper course, while the risk of partially displacing the still uncorrupted turf will be imminent. The turf would be less disturbed were drills made to sow the seed along the ridges, as fig. 206. In all these latter cases I would recommend the broadcast machine or the hand in preference to the drill; and I would confine the drill to the sowing of oats on tender land, as in the neighbourhood of towns, where it is made tender by the application of large quantities of streetmanure, and where drilling is advisable as affording a facility for clearing the land of surface-weeds, a multitude of which, and especially wild mustard, Sinapis arvensis, are apt to spring up from the use of street--manure. In England, however, where the drilling of grain is general, it must be owned that their ploughing with the wheel-plough and sowing with the drill-machine, are so perfect in their effect, that the seed is laid in the furrows with certainty, and without at all disturbing the furrow-slice. The soil of England

Fig.

is probably more generally smooth than that of Scotland.

2503. At a time when a less rational system of husbandry was pursued than now happily prevails that is, when land was allowed to be overrun with surface-water; when lea was ploughed out of choice in a wet state, because the labour of doing it was easier for half-starved jaded horses; when land was harrowed with small, light, loose harrows, furnished with short blunt tines; when the lea-turf consisted chiefly of the tough roots of perennial weeds-in these circumstances lea-ground required a great deal of harrowing to bring it to a tolerable degree of tilth-eight or nine double tines being considered time required to do this, obliged the oat-seed to no more than necessary. The great length of be begun early, so early indeed as Tusser recommends it in January, and by the time the crop was finished, every man and beast were almost worn out with fatigue. The land being now

tender and fertile by draining, cleaning, and manuring, oats have time to come to maturity when sown long after January, and its harrowing is now finished in one-third of the time, and with one-fourth the labour it required then.

when the plant has not pushed its leaves more 2504. The oat-crop, when very young, that is, than 2 inches above the ground, is subject to a very severe attack of the grub or larva of a particular insect, the Tipula oleracea, Meadow-craneAy, attacking its roots, and causing the plant to decay, and even to die when seriously injured. The perfect female insect is represented of the natural size at a, fig. 223, and which will at once be 223.

b