Australian Oat Varieties: Identification of Plants, Panicles and Grains by R.W. Fitzsimmons G.L. Roberts and C.W. Wrigley.

Australian Oat Varieties: Identification of Plants, Panicles and Grains by R.W. Fitzsimmons G.L. Roberts and C.W. Wrigley.  Paperback book/booklet (spiral bound) published by CSIRO 1983, 68 pages with colour photographs and some black and white illustrations.

Samuel Johnson: In England we wouldn't think of eating oats. We only feed them to Horses.
Boswell: "Well, maybe that's why in England you have better horses, and in Scotland we have better men". 
Conversation in response to Johnson criticising Boswell for the latter's Scottish habit of eating oats for breakfast.
(Unsourced Wikiquote)

Besides eating a few odd oats mixed with some dried fruit and nuts, I have very little to do with oats as a general rule.  In fact, I having nothing to do with oats at all*, yet I see a book about Australian Oat varieties and I get excited.  Yes it’s true the identification of plants, panicles and grains excites me… even though i have no idea what the word “panicle” means and can only assume that it has something to do with oats… I get excited.  It was also partially due to these wonderful photographs that my interest in things oaty, was stimulated.

I love the idea of photographing oats.  It’s a bit like photographing… well… ummm…. anything.  All you need is a good camera, a bit of skill and some oats and you’re off.  Most of us choose not to photograph oats (… I may be wrong about this) unless of course it’s part of our job as is the case with these photographs (… I may be wrong about this).  But there is a quality about these type of scientific/agricultural images that appeals to me, which is possibly a perceived absurdity on my behalf, at the very idea of photographing oats.  Of course to an oat aficionado, an agriculturalist (the probable target audience for these photos and the book), or a Scotsman (according to Johnson and Boswell), there is no absurdity.

More importantly though, I was drawn to this book as it is specifically about Australian Oat Varieties.  No foreign oats in this book just your regular Aussie oats.  This is an important aspect of this title particularly when one is trying to “separate the wheat from the chaff” in regards to oat books.

*But i do occasionally partake in some Haggis.