BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER. The common cultivated oat (Avina Satira) has from time immemorial been in general use in Europe, both as a food for man and beast. The number of valu able and well-defined varieties into which it has been brought by special cultivation and careful selection, is very great. It would be endless to attempt anything like a minute description of these varieties, and I will only briefly notice a few of the best-known and most popular. There are 54 varieties of oats (claiming all more or less distinction) in the museum of the Highland and Agricultural Society. Mr. Lawson says :—: — " Cultivators in every district have what they term common oats ; but this name is not universally applicable to one variety. Thus, the common oat of Rox burghshire is the Blainsley oat; the com mon oat of some parts of Perth and Angus shires is the late Angus oat; and in other parts, chiefly in the north, the early Angus is termed the common oat." Thus, Sir John Sinclair, in writing of the agriculture of Caithness says :—: — " The common oat is of great antiquity, and when grown on good soils is superior to most of the other kinds, having a pro lific ear and a strong straw, which affords a great quantity of fodder, and stands firm on the ground; it likewise grows well on the poorest soils, and is well cal culated for late situations by its early habit of ripening." The name "common" oats ia in fact often used to designate any variety with which a person is best acquainted. Oats are successfully cultivated in the most tem perate parts of India, but in general it loves the cold parts of the world, and flourishes best in the middle or even northern regions of the temperate zone, and becomes increasingly sickly and un productive as it approaches the tropics. This is well instanced by the poor, wretched apologies for oats which are sent in great quantities to Great Britain, and find their way to Melbourne, and, occa sionally to our ports, from California. It grows eminently well in Scotland, Ireland, the north of France, the Low Countries, and the north-western parts of Germany. 