CHAPTER II.

FAULTS IN ORDINARY PRACTICE.

IT

may be useful, first to point out the defects, in the present practice of husbandry with respect to wheat. The usual mode, with the best farmers, is to purchase seed corn, where it is supposed to be clean, and pure, by the last expression, meaning wheat of one sort, or as little mixed as possible. But the ordinary practice, with those who may be said to supply the nation, is to procure seed wheat, where it can be got cheapest, without regard to mixture or purity, provided the sample is good, and appears likely to grow; others do worse, and imagine, that poor lean shrivelled wheat, the refuse of their own stock, or some coming from a distance, as a change; is all that is required to ensure a crop. Other carelessness, previous to, or after culture, need not here be treated of, as that would equally affect the best, as well as the worst seed. One observation it would be well to make now, that the old practice of putting fresh manure to land intended for wheat, is decidedly dangerous, inasmuch as it tends to produce much grass or straw, and less grain, which grain is also of a dark and

coarse nature. Stable dung should be applied plentifully to the preparatory crop, and when lime or ashes are not procurable for the wheat crop, the early and free use of the hoe will supply their loss in a great measure; but none save decomposed stable dung should be applied to wheat, if that manure be necessary. This is merely stated as a general observation, as there may be soils which, without manure, would be wholly unproductive. The experience of the writer being at present chiefly limited to what are commonly held to be good soils.

The writer, in 1831, thought his crops were tolerably pure, yet on Professor La Gasca walking through them, as he has stated in the Introduction, he selected from them twenty-three sorts, of which, some have since been discovered to be three weeks later in ripening, than others. Hence, I repeat, it must be obvious, that corn harvested in an unequal state of ripeness, cannot be the best for the purpose of making bread,-when the greater part of the grain has been reaped in the state, the farmer considered was fittest for the miller; whilst the lesser part has been either in a milky state, or much over ripe, or some in states, between both.

It must be obvious, that the greatest quantity of farina or meal, is not obtained from wheat reaped in this manner; the largest quantity would be obtained, when every ear produced that

fine, plump, thin-skinned, coffee-like looking grain which evidently contains much meal, in a delicate, transparent, thin-coated bran, such as some Dantzic, selected from the high-mixed produces.

Hence it is assumed, that to have the best bread from any variety of wheat, is to have it so pure, that, supposing it to be grown on a level space, with one exposition, it will all ripen at the same time; slight differences being allowed for variation of soil, subsoil, or accidental unequal distribution of manure; but, speaking generally, it will ripen equally. Such variety, therefore, having ripened alike, will probably, if grown on the good Kentish, Essex, Devonshire, or other soils specially adapted to the growth of corn, be (if reaped at the proper moment) in that exact state of plump, round form, which promises the greatest quantity of flour.

I must here observe, that the cause why so much wheat appears to have many shrivelled, lean, ill-grown grains in it, arises often from the unequal growth of the many varieties that lurk in the purest crop.

Much has been judiciously written on the growth and cultivation of wheat, which has tended to a material improvement in those farms where care has been taken, perceptible even to superficial observers; but no writer has yet called the attention of the agricultural world to the cultivation of pure sorts, originating from one single grain. It is contended that this

D

has been the root of all the evil; many have attempted to begin well, but few if any have thought of commencing from the original, and persevering in keeping it pure.

This idea struck the author so powerfully, on the first conversation he had with Professor La Gasca, that it has never quitted him. His project was considered visionary and unattainable. Old farmers said, that as no farmer in the world had ever thought of separating and classing wheat, it could not be done, it was impossible to get a pure crop! The bees would mix the farina, mice would mix the grain, birds would do the same; if it had been feasible, it would have been tried before. Corn factors assured him that the climate of England was not calculated for the growth of such fine-skinned wheat as that of Dantzic, Volhynia and Sandomir. Professor La Gasca alone perceived and approved of the author's project.

The learned Professor had been theoretically employed in the classification and scientific examination of wheat as a plant, in the research and consideration of all its varieties; but it had escaped him to consider it in its properties, with relation to the food of man. This practical view the author took of it, and he determined to attempt to discover which were the most farinaceous and productive varieties, by comparing their characters and produce, one with another.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE CHOICE OF SEED.

THE usual mode, with the generality of farmers, is to procure any seed, that any neighbour, enjoying the reputation of being a good farmer, may have to sell. A more intelligent class take care to procure their seed from a distance, to require that it is fine, perhaps even pure; they also have thought of changing or renewing their seed occasionally. A still more intelligent number having procured the best seed they could obtain, of those sorts which observation, and experience, have led them to know as being best suited to their soil and climate, have further observed, that mixtures in their crops prevented their ripening at the same moment, and have endeavoured to remedy this defect, by making selections by hand, of those varieties which appeared to them to be similar, and thus have greatly, and manifestly, improved their crop in produce and quality.

A few farmers have proceeded a step further, and from having observed a stray car of apparently unusually prolific habits, have judiciously set it apart,