wheats are preferred to the brown and red, and fetch a higher price in the market; but the latter are considered most suitable for wet adhesive soils and unfavourable climates, on account of their superior hardiness and early ripening. In fact the white wheat is now rarely cultivated, except on superior soils, and in favourable aspects.

The richer description of clays and strong loams, are the soils best adapted for the growth of wheat; and if properly cultivated and manured, any variety of these soils will produce good crops. Wheat land ought to consist of a large proportion of clay, and but little sand; for although light soils may be made to produce good crops of wheat, yet the strong clay lands in general yield the heaviest grain. Sandy soils are deficient in firmness, and do not generally afford sufficient support to the roots of wheat, which do not strike deep; yet there are, nevertheless, some light soils which produce excellent wheat.

The time for sowing wheat, must in some degree be regulated by the state of the land, and the character of the season. It may be sown from the end of August to the middle of November, but on stiff clays it is proper to sow as early as possible. In the opinion of many experienced farmers, the best season for sowing wheat, whether on fallow or ploughed clover stubble, is from the beginning of September, to the middle or end of October; but this, as before said, must depend much upon the state of the soil and the weather. On dry gravelly loams, in good condition and well prepared, wheat will succeed when sown in November; after which month the sowing of wheat ought not to be hazarded, until the spring comes round.

When the ground can be properly ploughed after turnips, spring-wheat may be sown any time between the 1st of February and the middle of March; and it is customary, in order to get the seed in as soon as possible, to plough and sow the land in successive portions, as fast as the turnips are consumed off it; but in general it is only on land of a good quality, and in good condition, that spring-sown wheat can be cultivated

with success. Under favourable circumstances, however, such lands will produce nearly as many bushels of wheat as of barley; and as the wheat crop, on an average of seasons, will greatly exceed the value of the barley crop, the culture of spring-wheat is an object not to be altogether neglected by the farmer. The seed should always, however, be of the true spring sort, and taken from wheat known to have been sown in the spring of the preceding year.

On rich loamy soils, winter wheat may be sown after any green crop, whether fed off the land or not. If the land be foul and encumbered with weeds, it will be a good plan to sow winter vetches early and thick. If they come a good crop, they will smother and destroy the annual weeds and grass, and will leave the land light and mellow for the wheat crop. The vetches may be mowed, or else be eaten off with sheep. By the last method, manure and labour are saved, and in either case a naked fallow is avoided. Upon good light lands, wheat may be always grown on a clover-ley. It will also do well after turnips, vetches, or rape, if fed off or folded with sheep; and one ploughing after either of these crops will be sufficient.

Wheat is generally sown broadcast, but drilling is often practised on light soils, especially if the land be infested with weeds; as the drill allows of hand-hoeing and weeding, which is of great advantage to the crop. A third process is what is termed ribbing. The seed is scattered by hand, after the plough, and falling for the most part into the furrows between the ribs, it has the appearance of having been drilled, the ribs being then harrowed across. This process, and drilling, have the advantage of allowing the operation of weeding with greater ease than when the grain is sown broadcast. It also admits the free circulation of air between the plants, which is of great importance when the wheat is ripening.

The usual mode of broadcast-sowing, on stiff retentive soils, is upon 15-feet ridges, raised a little in the centre, and gently sloping towards the furrows. If on light or open-bottomed soils, 18-feet ridges are to

be preferred. The seed is covered by a double stroke of the harrow, up and down the ridge, and another double stroke across, and then finished by giving lengthwise a double or single stroke, according to the nature of the soil. The rounded shape of the ridges enables the rain-water to run off freely into the furrows, which are merely cleared out with the plough. If water lodges in any part of the field, a few open drains must be cut with the spade, to allow it to run off into the ditches and open drains.

Drilling may be readily performed, if the land be well harrowed previously. The drills are usually from twelve to fifteen inches asunder, made with a seed-plough, one turn of the plough for each drill. If a seed-plough cannot be got, by taking the mould-board off a common plough, it will serve nearly as well. The seed may then be sown over the drills, as in ribbing; and by passing the harrow lightly up and down, the seed is conveyed to the bottom of the drills, and covered.

Another plan is to drop the seed by hand into the furrows, after the plough, by which half the seed is saved, and the crop appears as regular as if it had been drilled. This is somewhat less tedious than dibbling, but it takes more seed.

Dibbling in the seed may occasionally be resorted to with advantage, on small farms; but it requires too much labour to be practised on large farms, although it is still sometimes done in Suffolk. It is performed by one man with a dibbling-stick, making a hole about an inch deep, and three or more children dropping in the grains, and then drawing the earth into the hole with their fingers; after which, the land should be gone over with a bush-harrow, and then rolled. Dibbling saves seed, and the grain is more equally distributed than by the broadcast method, and it will answer in a small way, and where labour is abundant and cheap.

When broadcast-sowing is practised, harrowing and rolling will be the principal after-culture necessary. These operations are requisite to loosen and pulverize the ground, on strong clay soils. The operation of har

rowing should be done in the spring, when the plants are four or five inches above ground; and attention is necessary to this point, for if the plants are too far advanced, their growth may be checked by the operation.

Rolling in spring ought never to be omitted. Light soils are frequently left in so loose a state by the winter frosts, that the roots quit the soil and perish. If the land be rough and cloddy, the roller has a more beneficial effect than the harrow in pulverizing the inert masses, and thus increasing the nourishment of the plants. Hand-hoeing and weeding are never neglected by careful farmers.

Feeding sheep on young wheat is sometimes practised, when the shoots are luxuriant, in the early part of spring; but the practice is open to great objection, as the sheep generally nip off the tender blade in the heart of the plant, which hurts its after-growth.

The quantity of seed per acre will depend much upon the nature of the soil, and the mode of culture. Poor land requires more seed than rich land. Drilling economizes the seed, and dibbling does this still more. The quantity accordingly varies from two bushels to three, a little less or a little more, according as the grain is drilled or sown broadcast. When sown in spring, there should be a liberal allowance of seed, as the plants have then less time to tiller and spread their roots.

Wheat is liable to several maladies, but smut, blight, and mildew are most to be dreaded by the farmer. Smut is a kind of fungus, which germinates on the plant; but as to its origin, and mode of cure, there are various opinions, totally dissimilar, and therefore of doubtful authority.

Among the remedies, or preventives for disease in wheat, the following have been recommended:-1. Sowing at a proper season, according to the nature of the soil. 2. Raising early varieties of seed. 3. Constant change of the seed. 4. Consolidating light soils with the roller after sowing. 5. Adopting a due rotation of crops. 6. Extirpating all weeds and plants that are receptacles of rust. These are doubtless all proper, and necessary to be attended to in the cultivation of

wheat; and it is certain, moreover, that benefit has been derived from sowing four bushels of common salt per statute acre with the grain, and a like quantity in the spring, when the crop begins to tiller.

Wheat should be cut, when the straw has assumed a mixed colour of yellow and green, and before it is dead ripe; as then the grain is apt to drop from the ear, and the ear itself to break off, which causes a loss of grain. The best time for cutting all kinds of corn, is when no juice can be expressed from the straw immediately below the ear; the grain will then be comparatively clean-skinned and fine, and both grain and straw are more valuable than if allowed to be full or dead ripe. When over-ripe, the grain assumes a dusky colour, which is much against its appearance in the market.

Wheat is almost universally reaped with the sickle, and tied up in sheaves, which are set up in stooks, and left to dry. The smaller the sheaves the sooner will they dry, and the stooks should be so formed as to allow the wind to pass readily through them. When the knots or joints of the straw are perfectly dry, and free from juice, the crop may be safely carried to the stackyard; and this need not be delayed by a slight shower of rain, for the straw being dry, and of a stiff open texture, a little rain will not cause it to heat, nor prove injurious to the grain.

BARLEY.

Barley, is hardier in its growth than wheat. There are six varieties of this grain, distinguished by the number of rows in the ear. The two-rowed is divided into two principal sorts, early and late. The early or quickgrowing sort is the kind most extensively cultivated, and admits of great latitude in the season of sowing, having in some cases been put into the ground so late as the beginning of June: but when sown early, the straw is always much stronger, and the grain heavier. Bear, bigg, or rough bear, is the hardiest variety of