Oats

“ From this stack I took as much oats in the sheaf as I could carry, and going on a few miles, stopped in a pine forest, made a large fire, and parched at least half a gallon of oats, after rubbing the grain from the straw. After the grain was parched, I again rubbed it in my hands, to separate it from the husks, and spent the night in feasting on parched oats.
The weather was now becoming quite warm, though the water was cold in the rivers; and I perceived the farmers had everywhere ploughed their fields, preparatory to planting corn. ”

“ Sometimes we get bundles of oat hay out of the barns we visit en route, and strap them, with armfuls of green oats pulled from the fields, fore and aft of our saddles, till we look like fonts at harvest festivals. ”

“ Oats and mustard grow spontaneously, with such rankness as to be considered nuisances upon the soil. I have forced my way through thousands of acres of these, higher than my head when mounted on a horse. The oats grow to the summits of the hills, but they are not here so tall and rank as in the valleys. ”

“ The genial soil is well adapted for the growth of those grains which are suitable for European or North American emigrants. Wheat, barley, rye and oats grow abundantly, as well as potatoes, turnips, onions, and all the roots known to our gardeners and farmers. Oats, of the species cultivated in the Atlantic States, are annually self-sown on all the plains and hills along the coast, and as far inland as the sea-breeze has a marked influence on the climate. ”

“ In the choice of oats, the shorter and fuller the grain the better; when bitten in two, they should be dry and mealy: they should feel hard in the hand, and when hard grasped should slip through the fingers; oats with thin bodies and long tails are the worst. ”

“ Oats are, besides, more easily digested and a larger proportion absorbed and converted into the various tissues of the body. Care must be taken in selecting oats. According to Stewart, the best oats are one year old, plump, short, hard, clean, bright, and sweet. ”

“ Wild oats will get sown some time, and one of the arts of life is to sow them at the right time,—the younger the better. ”

“ I remember once I bought a sack of Organic whole oats that were the smallest, most shriveled, bitterest oats I've ever tried to eat. We ended up throwing out that tiny, light (lacking density) seed in favor of using the "conventional" whole oats that were plump, heavy and sweet.
Wheat is not the only cereal that is damaged by industrial milling. So are oats. Most consumers have never seen whole oats; they look very much like wheat berries. But rolled oats become rancid and stale on the shelf much like wheat flour on the shelf. ”

“ Crop oats, like wheat, have ever been considered as a direct gift from Ceres, and few, indeed, amongst scientific men were willing to believe that they were derived from a wild and weed species. Still, the farmer had long maintained that oats, when cultivated, often left behind them weed oats; and in some districts of Worcester, Gloucester, and Warwick, we have known men refuse to grow oats as a crop from their fear of producing the terrible weed, which, indeed, the wild oat is on all hands admitted to be. ”

“ Pliny fancied these two plants so analogous, that the owner of a field who had sown barley might find oats at the time of harvest, whilst precisely the reverse might happen to his neighbour. [V_16] Nature, in our days, is not subject to such frolics; and our farmers are tolerably certain that, by care, labour, and God’s assistance, they will gather from the soil what they have sown.
“In order to develop a strong flavour of vanille in black oats, wash this seed, boil it a moment in water, and employ the decoction as you would potato flour, and it will form excellent creams. ”

“ Barley, oats, and rye, the turnip and the beet, the beetroot, the carrot, the pumpkin, and so many other vegetable products, leave us in the same perplexity; their point of departure is unknown to us, or at most suspected behind the impenetrable cloud of the centuries. ”

“ There are many varieties of oats in cultivation, but in general characteristics they all correspond to one description. The husk adheres firmly to the grain, and when threshed the grain of a common variety of oat carries the first layer of husk or chaff with it. Oats, as bought in the market, therefore, consist not only of the kernel or grain but also of this outer, chaffy envelope. The magnitude of the crop in the United States is very great, but only an inconsiderable proportion of the whole is used for human food, and this chiefly in some form of oatmeal. ”

“ The United States, more like England than Scotland, has used oats mostly for feed. The crop is second only to the corn-crop. Oats are eaten in the form of oatmeal, which is a finely granulated meal, and as the common rolled oats which have been steamed and put through rollers. There is little oat flour on the market at present. A successful and palatable home-made flour may be prepared by putting rolled oats through a food-chopper. Any of the forms of oats can be used in breads of all kinds, but the more finely ground flour can be substituted in larger proportion. ”

“ Very glad they are to get their heavy leather collars and harness off and rest in the cool barn. They have hay to eat but they have been working hard so they have oats besides. Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah eat oats too but theirs are flattened out and cooked. We call it oatmeal. The oats for the horses are not flat but round like little seeds, and are not cooked on any stove. Farmer Green cuts the stalks in the oat field. ”

“ All varieties of cultivated oats seem to elaborate it, but they do so in very different degrees. The elaborated substance is the same in all varieties. The differences in quantity depend not only on the variety of the plant but also on the place of cultivation. Oats of the white variety have much less than those of the dark, but for some of the former, in Sweden, the difference is small; while for others, in Russia, it is considerable. ”

“ Are they not like fastenings, which help it to bear easily the weight of the ear, when it is swollen with fruit and bends towards the earth? Thus, whilst oats, which have no weight to bear at the top, are without these supports, nature has provided them for wheat. It has hidden the grain in a case, so that it may not be exposed to birds’ pillage, and has furnished it with a rampart of barbs, which, like darts, protect it against the attacks of tiny creatures. ”

“ Oat straw is much relished by sheep and cattle, and is superior to that of barley or wheat. Oats are grown extensively in some localities as a substitute for hay, and are cut before they begin to ripen. They also make an excellent forage crop, and after being pastured off the ground the soil is left in a fine condition for the next crop.
The chemical composition of oats and oat meal is as follows:
The composition of corn meal and Graham is given for the sake of a convenient comparison. ”

“ I hold that 60 bushels of Carrots and 50 of Oats, fed in alternate meals, are of at least equal value as horse-feed with 100 bushels of Oats alone, while more easily grown in this climate. The Oat-crop makes heavy drafts upon the soil, while our hot Summers are not congenial to its thrift or perfection. Since we must grow Oats, we must be content to import new seed every 10 or 15 years from Scotland, Norway, and other countries which have cooler, moister Summers than our own ”

“ After awhile it seemed to me that my oats came very short; I had the beans, but bran was mixed with them instead of oats, of which there were very few; certainly not more than a quarter of what there should have been. ”

“ As oats and rye make a better yield on poor land than any other cereals, some farmers usually plant these crops on their poorest lands. However, no land is too good to be used for so valuable a crop as oats. Oats require a great deal of moisture; hence light, sandy soils are not so well adapted to this crop as are the sandy loams and fine clay loams with their closer and heavier texture. ”

“ The showers of last week have brought the needed moisture for our wheat, which is looking splendid. Our oats are not quite so promising, but everything will depend upon the season. The season, in fact, holds our fate and our fortune in its lap. ”

“ The oats sprout more quickly if grown and sprinkled in a fairly dark place, and it must be remembered that too warm a temperature will rot the mass after the growth has reached its fourth or fifth day. ”

“ Oats will produce something on poor land, with bad tillage, but repay thorough fertilization and tillage as well as most other crops. Enrich the land, work it deep and thoroughly, and roll after harrowing. Moist, cool situations are much preferable for oats: hence, success in warm climates depends upon very early sowing. Oats sowed as late as the first of July, in latitude forty-two and further north, will mature; yet, all late oats, even [Pg 304] with large straw and handsome heads, will be found to be only from one half to two thirds filled in proportion to the lateness of sowing. ”

“ Thus in the Vorharz an Oats-man and an Oats-woman, swathed in straw, dance at the harvest feast. In South Saxony an Oats-bridegroom and an Oats-bride figure together at the harvest celebration. The Oats-bridegroom is a man completely wrapt in oats-straw; the Oats-bride is a man dressed in woman's clothes, but not wrapt in straw. ”

“ July 26—Finished cutting the oats on the swamp while green and stacked them. There is a fair catch of grass.
Aug. 4—All the grain is ripe; cutting is slow on account of the stumps. Today there were four of us busy with the hook. Oats are not as plump as in Scotland; they fill too quickly.
CHAPTER IX. THE AFTER YEARS
Further extracts from the master's diary would not help the story I am telling you, for it becomes such a record as many farmers keep,—when they sowed and reaped, what they sold and bought. ”

“ Wild-oats grow there, without sowing, and the Vines without planting; their Wines are most delicate, their fruit of all sorts grow with great plenty and goodness; to be short, there is nothing wanting which may not only delight the eye, but please the most critical Palat with whatever may be accounted gustful. ”

“ The grain which they commit to the furrows thus tediously formed, is either oats or barley. They do not sow barley without very copious manure, and then they expect from it ten for one, an increase equal to that of better countries; but the culture is so operose that they content themselves commonly with oats; and who can relate without compassion, that after all their diligence they are to expect only a triple increase? It is in vain to hope for plenty, when a third part of the harvest must be reserved for seed. ”

“ The wild oat, moreover, has a long stiff awn, usually twisted near the base. In the cultivated oat it may be wanting, and if present it is not so stiff and is seldom bent. The grain is very small and worthless in the one, but larger and full in the other. There are now many varieties of the cultivated oat included under two principal races—common oat or panicled oats with a spreading panicle, A. sativa proper, and Tatarian oats or banner oats which has sometimes been regarded as a distinct species, A. orientalis, with contracted one-sided panicles. ”

“ Wild oats occur commonly, although they are not made any use of; the seed is large, and ripens sooner than any of the others; from the size of the uncultivated specimens, I am sure that oats would form an excellent crop.
In the fields Cichorium is very common, and Carduacea, Centaurea cyanea, Dipsaceæ, and in certain low places an Arundo, are the most common weeds; two or three Silenaceæ, and Umbelliferæ also occur. In the ditches Typha, Butomus, watercresses, Alomioides, Ceratophyllum, Lemna gibba? Confervæ, Gramineæ two or three, Ranunculus, Potamogeton, one species immersa; Mentha, Sium. ”

“ When Oats go to the mill they are put into a kiln and subjected to considerable heat until the hull cracks and they are three-fourths cooked, then they are sifted and ground either coarse or fine as you wish. ”

“ RYLAX WITH PRUNE JAM. Prepare like the foregoing. Omit the lemon. Serve with prune jam, celery or nuts, or with hot cream.
Cereals are the most perfect products of the vegetable kingdom, and make fairly well balanced foods. They are deficient in fat, with the exception of corn and oats.
ROLLED WHEAT. Prepare and serve like rolled oats. Cranberries, prunes, apricots, or apple sauce, are all good additions. The yolk of 56an egg may be added to the wheat when mixing it with butter.
RAW ROLLED OATS. Soak one-half cup of Quaker rolled oats with a scant cup of warm salted water. ”

“ As the ground grows dry under the heat of the summer sun, the oats dry up and become of a bright golden color. All the nutritious properties are perfectly preserved, and so long as no rain falls upon this standing hay, it is eaten with avidity by the cattle and keeps them sleek and fat. ”

“ A double handful of clean chaff, or of bran mixed with the oats in the manger, prevents a greedy horse from swallowing a considerable proportion whole. Unchewed oats pass out in the faeces uninjured, so that they are capable of germination, and are of less than no value to a horse. Horses doing slow or other than “upper ten” work may have oats crushed, not ground, and a variety of additions made to the oats which are usually the basis of the feed—for example, a few old crushed beans, a little linseed meal, ground linseed cake or about a wine-glassful of unboiled linseed oil. ”