INTRODUCTION.

It requires some apology and some sort of introduction from a person wholly unknown to Agriculturists, when he rashly, it would seem, tells them, that the proper culture of wheat, is unknown, or unpractised An apology is easily made, the only object of the writer being to become useful in the inost unobstrusive manner, by endeavouring to better the condition of every cultivator of wheat; and for an introduction he has only to use a greater name, that of Professor La Gasca, Curator of the Royal Gardens at Madrid, whose extensive collections of the varieties of wheat, and botanical researches into its nature as a plant, chiefly scientific and theoretical, led the author to make practical experiments, on the growth and properties of wheat as a nutriment, which have already led to important results.

To the Professor, I owe a great and lasting debt of gratitude, for having drawn my attention to the subject. Five years since, I accidentally saw with astonishment and pleasure, about eighty distinct sorts of wheat growing in a nursery garden in Jersey; some seven feet high, some only four; the ears of some three inches long, others six. Professor La Gasca,

whose they were, happened to join me, and though a stranger, he politely explained their nature to me.

I requested him to visit my crops the following day; I considered them as pure, at least as unmixed as those of my neighbours; when to my dismay, he drew from three fields, three and twenty sorts-some white wheat, some red, some liver-coloured, some spring wheat; some dead ripe, the corn shaking out, some ripe, some half so, some in a milky state, and some green.

I reflected on the subject, and immediately became convinced that no crop in that state, could either produce the greatest weight of corn, give the largest quantity of flour, or make the best or lightest bread, such as would be produced from a field, in an equal and perfect state of ripeness.

I directly conceived a plan, to endeavour practically to ascertain, the relative properties of the best and most productive sorts of wheat; I requested Professor La Gasca to shew me those which he considered the best. He pointed out fourteen sorts : these I grew with extreme care, in the mode that will be described hereafter.

When the Professor saw the drift and result of my comparative experiments, he exclaimed: "Is it "Is it possible that in one twelvemonth you have practically obtained the knowledge of what I have been for five and twenty years studying botanically; but, perse

vere, with diligence and courage, you will yet work out some great benefit for your country, and for mankind."

It is to the prosecution of these researches, after five years of close application, that I desire to call the attention of the agricultural world. I will frankly say, that all I advance is to be received with caution; that if experiments are to be made on the suggestions which I shall throw out, they should first be, on a small scale, not blindly run into, as if all I state were to be received as a certainty. The results to be obtained in agricultural experiments are necessarily slow, nearly a whole twelvemonth must elapse, before the seed which has been put into the ground, will be convertible into bread-the only valuable proof of the experiment. It is, therefore, by slow approaches, that we shall arrive at the perfect knowledge of a result, which, it is believed, will be most important in itself, and most valuable to all intelligent, industrious, and persevering farmers.

The great first principle I wish to advocate, is the proper adaptation of varieties of wheat, to the various soils and climates, since it is the suitableness of each sort to each soil, that will enable the farmer to pay the rent of his land, by sowing one variety, where, he would be unable to do so, by attempting to grow another of a seemingly better sort.

If this end can be obtained, the object I have had

in view will be realised; the farmer will be placed in a better situation than he is now; the productiveness of the soil will be enormously increased, inasmuch as many unproductive lands may be made to grow wheat suited to them, under a proper rotation of cropping, and clean husbandry; this last, I hold to be indispensible under all circumstances.

If I am fortunate enough generally to convince Agriculturists, that I have advanced facts; and have carried conviction to their minds; the cultivation of the most farinaceous wheats, white, red, yellow, or liver-coloured, each suited to their peculiar soils, will become a science, not unworthy, I deem it, the attention of the Government of this or any other country: and a national experimental farm, for the establishment of such researches, might be properly placed under the control of the Chancellor of this and every other Government.

The slow results attainable, only as I have before stated, at the expiration of a twelvemonth, conducted by a single individual, at considerable expense, much employment of time, some uncertainty, arising from occasional absence; how useful soever, could not be compared with the utility of a national establishment, founded for the purpose of quickly ascertaining such important facts, where the results of many years of application by one person, would be attained in one

or two seasons.

CHAPTER I.

WHEAT,-ITS ORIGIN AND VARIETIES.

IT is not the intention to write an elaborate treatise on this subject, which, although interesting to the learned and scientific reader, would be of no practical utility to the farmer. It may, nevertheless, not be wholly uninteresting to look back a little into the history of wheat.

We learn from the sacred volume, that it was of the earliest culture, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." It is therefore to be presumed that wheat was coeval with the creation; and that upwards of a thousand years before the christian era, some improvement in its culture, and some knowledge of a superior variety, had been attained, by the circumstance of its being stated, that "Judah traded in wheat of Minnith," perhaps meaning that such wheat of Minnith, was held to be in superior estimation. This may be the most ancient designation for any particular growth of wheat, the superiority of which, at that early period had engaged public attention. Columella, who wrote about the time of our Lord, makes some interesting remarks on wheat. "The chief "and the most profitable corns for men, are common

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