CHAPTER XIII.

ON THE PROPERTIES OF SOME VARIETIES.

I have stated the relative weight, and fineness of quality, of the varieties, delineated in this volume.

It may be well to say a few words in respect to their relative value as to produce of straw. It is stated in the excellent work I have already quoted, at the Article" British Husbandry" Chap. X, Page 154. "The straw is generally reckoned to be about double the weight of the grain; an Acre, producing three quarters of wheat of the ordinary quality, may therefore be presumed to yield about twenty six hundred weight."

If the results obtained by my experiments are of any value, the quantity of Straw produced from a single ear of the best varieties, namely, No. 1, Jersey Dantzic, one of the best varieties, produced three pounds three ounces of wheat in round numbers, dropping the fractional parts, and three pounds nine ounces of straw, only six ounces more straw than wheat. No. 2, Album Densum," produced two pounds twelve ounces of wheat and eight ounces more straw than wheat. No, 5, Coturianum," six more straw, than grain, and No. 8, "Koeleri"

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four pounds four ounces of grain, and only three pounds thirteen ounces of straw. The next, No. 9, the Red compact, produced only two pounds, nine ounces of wheat from three pounds fifteen ounces of straw, an excess of one pound six ounces of straw over the grain in the last sort, whereas in the former, No. 8, a most excellent and superior variety, there was an excess in grain, of seven ounces over the straw-It must be obvious from these facts that by a proper system of culture, wheat should be brought to such perfection, as to produce more grain than straw, Nos. eight, ten, and thirteen having done sobut I particularly allude to No. 8, from its being an exceedingly valuable variety, in every respect, with the exception of retaining moisture in the ear, a considerable length of time after rain, from its being velvet husked, or downy.

The observation from the "Library of Useful Knowledge" may be perfectly correct, as far as it regards ordinary husbandry, but it leads me to believe, what I have already hazarded to state, that the proper culture of wheat is unpractised.

It is a curious fact, that the fifth of a pint of seed of the Dantzic variety similar to No. 1, sown in drills, about as thick as a drill machine would have sown it, Nos 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19, should have nearly accorded with the statement, for with the exception of No. 15, which produced only three pounds six

ounces of corn, from about "two thousand" grains, they produced six pounds ten ounces, or very nearly double the weight of straw; corresponding with the extract above alluded to-whereas row No. 1 of the very same sort, from only sixty one grains, produced within three ounces as much grain, but little more than half less straw. These surely are startling facts, worthy the consideration of more able farmers than the writer.

The straw of No. 1, is of a beautifully white colour, very fine, but rather apt to lay in rich soils; the grain is tolerably tenacious to the husk, not much liable to shed. That of No. 2, is rather coarser and stouter; the grain is very tenacious in the ear. No. 5, has a short straw, white and slight, it is also little liable to shed the grain. That of No. 8, is still shorter, but fine, and excellent for fodder, indeed they appear to be among the very best, as cattle eat them all greedily; as I have before observed this last being a hoary, or velvet eared variety, may not be suited for a damp climate, as it retains moisture, for a considerably longer period, than either of the former sorts-but on dry uplands, it is highly productive, and valuable in every respect. In damp situations, the smooth eared sorts, both white and red, I apprehend to be the best. The Talavera I have raised from a single grain, has a slight white straw; it is rather apt to lay in rich soils,

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the ear being apparently too heavy for the stem; but a variety very similar to it which was given me by Professor La Gasca, that was sown on a poor soil this spring, came very fine in the ear, though it not being above three feet high in the straw, enabled it to carry its head upright. Should it continue to possess this quality in richer land it will be a great improvement in the variety; this I shall be enabled to ascertain next

season.

Mr. Knight the President of the Horticultural Society of London, has given some valuable hints with respect to raising new varieties from seed; and has described the mode of intercrossing them, by impregnating the female blossoms of one variety with the pollen or fecundating matter, of the male organs of the other, which if not done with some degree of care and attention, being a nice and difficult operation, may produce many varieties, of habits peculiarly liable to sport. I imagine that the only sure mode of preventing such an intermixture would be to leave only one female blossom on the plant to be impregnated, thus insuring a single variety of the precise quality required.

There can be no doubt that with due attention, the practice can be established as satisfactorily, as the success that has been met with, by those who have attended to the intercrossing of Geraniums, now grown of all shades and colours, almost at will.

CHAPTER XIV.

CLASSIFICATION.

THE attempt to class the varieties of wheat, is necessary; it is a laborious and difficult undertaking, which should be performed by a more scientific person than the writer. But as no one has yet done so, as a branch of Agriculture, in those plain terms which may be intelligible, not to the Botanist, or scientific reader only, but to the great mass of farmers, I shall risk the trial for those sorts that are in usual cultivation.

I leave to Botanists the seven species of Triticum, named in that very useful work, Loudon's Encyclopedia of Agriculture, also the attempt at classification that is made in Sinclairs very excellent book on Grasses, neither of these works, explaining what I should consider to be, the principal object in view, the nature and real qualities of each variety, as to their properties for making bread.

A gentleman who may be planting a garden, is desirous of having peaches, figs, pears, grapes, apples, even gooseberries, of particular seasons, flavours, qualities, and colours; these are all named, and so intelligibly classed, that if the Nurseryman deceives him in one or two of them, he is set down as a person who is not to be depended upon yet these luxuries,