Sugar-canes, as large and juicy as those of the West Indies, are cultivated in several parts of Spain, but particularly in the country betwixt Malaga and Gibraltar. They were originally introduced, by the Moors, several centuries ago; and the sugar made from them is of excellent quality. There are sugar mills, in more than twelve different places, on the coast of Grenada, all of which are fully employed: in one village there are four, which cost at least 5,000l. sterling each.
28. OATS are the seeds or grain of an annual plant (Avena sativa, Fig. 14), too well known, and too much cultivated throughout every part of Europe, to need any description.
The country from which they were originally imported is not known.
The principal use of oats in this country is for the feeding of horses. In the northern parts of England, and in Scotland, they are applied also to the nutriment of man. When simply freed from their husks they are called groats or grits; and, in this state, are much used in broths, and other kinds of nutriment for sick and infirm persons. More frequently, however, they are ground into oatmeal, which is made into cakes, biscuits, &c. The husks, infused in water, and allowed to remain till the water becomes somewhat acid, are boiled to a jelly called sowins. A grateful and nutritive kind of jelly, which has the name of flummery, is also made of oatmeal, boiled with water, and flavoured with a little orange-flower water, and sugar.
Oats will thrive in almost any soil, but they are chiefly productive on land that has been newly broken up. They are usually sown in February or March, and the harvest commences about August. Several kinds or varieties are cultivated in different parts of England, such as white oats, black oats, brown or red oats, Tartarian or reed oats, Friezeland oats, Poland oats, and some others, but, of these, the first are considered the most valuable.
29. WHEAT is a well known kind of corn (Triticum hybernum, Fig. 13) which is cultivated in most of the civilized countries of the world, and is supposed to have been originally introduced into Europe, from some part of Asia.
No grain is so valuable to the inhabitants of nearly all climates as this; and, by a wonderful ordination of Providence, it is rendered capable of sustaining, without injury, almost the two extremes of heat and cold. Not only does it ripen in Egypt and Barbary, but it ripens equally well in Scotland, Denmark, and Sweden.
It constitutes the chief food of the British nation; and its abundance or scarcity regulates, in a great degree, the welfare and prosperity of the inhabitants. The whole annual consumption of grain, in this island, amounts to nearly 25,000,000 quarters; and in London alone, to more than 1,162,100 quarters. Of this by far the greatest proportion is wheat.
For the cultivation of this important grain the best lands are rich clays and heavy loam; and, although light soils will produce wheat of excellent quality, yet the crops on the other soils are by far the most abundant. The best season for committing the seed to the ground is September, and the earlier in the month the better. Some farmers consider it necessary to steep the seed in brine or other pickle before it is used, to prevent it from being devoured by vermin, and render the corn less liable to disease than it would be without this process. In a good season the wheat harvest commences in August, and is finished in the course of the ensuing month. This species of corn is usually cut with instruments called reaping-hooks, but in some parts it is mown with scythes.
The different kinds or varieties of wheat that are cultivated in this country are too numerous to be particularized.