Short notes and links on dredge corn following a recent enquiry from a research student working on pilcorn, a ‘naked’ variety of oat.
Dredge corn is a mixture of two or more cereal crops, usually barley and oat but sometimes including other cereals. It was grown in a few parts of the UK, mainly in the south-west. Dredge was sometimes used as a verb – to dredge seed of one species with that of another, for example. A short article on dredge corn was included in the 1925 book series on Farm Crops:
Borlase, W. (1925) Dredge corn. In: Paterson, W.G.R (ed.) Farm Crops Volume 1 Grain crops, pp. 265-269. The Gresham Publishing Company Ltd., London, UK.
Here is a PDF comprising phone snaps of the five pages: Dredge Corn
Pilcorn is a type of oat, one that sheds seed from the husk, hence its classification as a ‘naked’ cereal. The typical oat grown in the UK is Avena sativa, also known as white oat, but several other domesticated species have been grown here including black or bristle oat (Avena strigosa) which we grew in the Living Field cereal collection. However, we did not manage to grow naked oat.
The Lawson’s compendium of the Vegetable Products of Scotland names two varieties of naked oat Avena nuda, neither grown much in the north (pages copied below).
Pages 92 and 93 showing the entry on Avena nuda from: Lawson P and Son (1852) Synopsis of the vegetable products of Scotland. Private Press of Peter Lawson and Son, Edinburgh.
GS 4 January 2025