CHAPTER XII.

ON THE EARLY HABITS OF SOME VARIETIES.

It has long been the practice with intelligent farmers, to procure seed wheat from warmer climates, especially those in the North, to whom it is important to obtain seed that may ripen a fortnight earlier than that of home growth.

The chances are, that such wheat having the best and warmest weather to ripen in, will have attained its full state of maturity, hence not only be the most productive in farina, but also the fittest for seed.

I have had occasion, this season, to satisfy myself by observation of the excellence of such practicethrough the kindness of the late Secretary to the Devon and Cornwall Horticultural Society, Mr. Hamilton, I was enabled to sow seven grains of the Victoria wheat grown on Dartmoor heath-they were very poor and lean, however five of them grew, throve and ripened among my select varieties. They were sown on the 10th of November, in order to compare the produce and volume of their grain, with some of the same sort, which were to be sown on the 29th of March following-they rose on the seventeenth day, were in ear on the first of June, were in flower on the tenth, and were ripe on the 23d of July.

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Those sown on the 29th of March were on a light soil in a warm exposition, they came. into car on the 19th of June, flowered on the first of July and ripened on the 20th of August. The first of these two experiments establishes that it is a hardy variety as it stood the winter perfectly; the ear and grain is also finer and plumper, than that sown in the spring. The term Tremois" wheat, however, does not apply to those climates, which are not sufficiently warm, to force the growth of corn so as to ripen it in ninety days; this having taken one hundred and forty four to ripen. Two samples of seed wheat from the Cape of Good Hope, one which I obtained through the attention of Mr. Collier, the Member of Parliament for Plymouth, and the other from a friend to whom it had been sent as a particularly fine sample, for seed, which it really was, led to some interesting observations. I was anxious to succeed in raising wheat from the Cape, as it has been questioned whether wheat which has crossed the line would vegetate -this being stated in "The Farmer's Series, No.74" of the Library of Useful Knowledge, Article, British Husbandry, Chap. x, Page 156. "Some fine species have lately been imported from the Cape of Good Hope, and from Van Dieman's Land; but it was found, when sown on one of the finest farms in Bedfordshire, that it would not grow; and it is said, though we know not with what truth, that "scarcely

any wheat is ever known to vegetate in this country that had crossed the Line, unless particular care be taken to preserve it from the effects of the atmosphere."

Hence it became an object of no small interest to succeed in raising it—it was with great satisfaction therefore, that I perceived both samples growing freely in November last.

In the Spring, their growth, was quite different from that of any other wheat near them, whether from Dantzic, Poland, Carraccas, Essex, or this Island. It was much more upright, bushy, and of a lighter green, and trailed and tillered less. It put on also, a rather sickly appearance as if suffering from the cold. It came into ear on the 26th of May, six days earlier than the Carraccas wheat, but came into flower two days later, on the 12th of June, and only ripened on the 28th of July, five days later than the Victoria wheat, which had been sown the same day.

It is to be observed that, there was much bearded or spring wheat among it, which appears, on first acquaintance, to have nearly similar habits, as the winter wheats, it came among, but seems to be very fine. Its real value will be ascertained by comparison with other spring wheats next year.

The sickly appearance alluded to above, in the Cape wheat, was indicative doubtless of a yellow description of smut, that appeared in it in June,

which I had never observed previously to infest my wheat; it destroyed many of the grains, some of them being reduced to a mere shell, or skin, containing a small worm.

A most singular circumstance, may be noticed here; I had sown sixty three drills of this same seed from the Cape, on the 29th March, in a field having a considerable reclination to the Southward-a warm yet exposed situation. A great quantity of the seed perished, but all that rose, had a healthy appearance, of a dark green colour, quite different from that sown in the garden; it came into ear on the nineteenth of June, flowered on the first of July, and ripened on the tenth of August, not a single ear was infected with the yellow smut I complained of, in the experiment made in the garden among my select varieties. Hence it is clear that, this wheat from a hot climate, when sown in November on flat land suffered much from the cold and wet, where the very same sample of seed sown so late as the 29th February, on a warm slope exposed to the rays of the sun, found a genial and somewhat similar climate to its own, and succeeded perfectly. It is not unlikely, that the produce of this last, sown with judgment, a little earlier, and in a warm exposition may become a valuable importation, and preserve early habits for more northern climates. Some which was given me as " Kubanka," a thin liver colored wheat which was exhi

bited before the Channel Islands Committee in 1835, turned out to be a Spring or bearded variety; it came into ear on the 1st of June, flowered on the 18th, and ripened on the 10th of August. It does not tiller much and appeared so like barley that I was doubtful what it should be; it was a perfectly pure sample though much of it died. The Ducksbill, a very productive sort from Kiel, in the Baltic, is said to produce meal fit only for pastry, it is the finest ear that I have seen; a cross with a variety producing a light dry meal would be highly advantageous—its habits are late, as it came into ear on the 12th of June, and flowered as late as the 29th, it however, ripened on the 6th August. The Golden drop, a fine brown eared variety is equally late. This is a very farinaceous sort, probably one of the best of the red wheats, on

which as well as on spring wheats I shall treat apart, -my present observations being chiefly confined to white wheats, which are the first in order as to value.