an oat is cultivated south of Tennessee, which after being sown
in autumn, and fed off by stock in winter and spring, yields from ten
to twenty bushels per acre. In the manufacture of malt and spirituous
liquors oats enter but lightly, and their consumption for this purpose
does not exceed 60,000 bushels annually in the United States.

In 1840, Ireland exported 2,037,835 quarters of oats and oatmeal, but
in 1846, on account of the dearth, the grain exports fell off
completely. Most of the grain grown in Ireland requires to be
kiln-dried, and is, therefore, of lower value.

The oat, like rye, never has entered much into our foreign commerce,
as the domestic consumption has always been nearly equal to the
quantity produced. The annual average exports from the United States
for several years preceding 1817, were 70,000 bushels.

By the census returns of 1840, the total produce of the United States
was 123,071,341 bushels; of 1850, 146,678,879 bushels.

In Prussia 43 million hectolitres of oats are annually raised.

The quantity of oats imported into the United Kingdom, has been
declining within the last few years. In 1849, we imported 1,267,106
quarters; in 1850, 1,154,473; in 1851, 1,209,844; in 1852, 995,479. In
1844, 221,105 bushels of oats were raised in Van Diemen's Land on
13,864 acres.

RYE.

Rye (_Secale cereale_) is scarcely at all raised in this country for
bread, except in Durham and Northumberland, where, however, it is
usually mixed with wheat, and forms what is called "maslin,"--a bread
corn in considerable use in the north of Europe.

Geographically rye and barley associate with one another, and grow
upon soils the most analogous, and in situations alike exposed. It is
cultivated for bread in Northern Asia, and all over the Continent of
Europe, particularly in Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and
Holland; in the latter of which it is much employed in the manufacture
of gin. It is also grown to some extent in England, Scotland and
Wales. With us it is little used as an article of food compared with
wheat and oats, though in the north of Europe and in Flanders it forms
the principal article of human subsistence, but generally mixed with
wheat, and sometimes, also with barley; 100 parts of the grain consist
of 65.6 of meal, 24.2 of husk, and 10.2 of water. The quantity of rye
we import seldom reaches 100,000 quarters per annum.

The straw is solid, and the internal part, being, filled with p