18 



ox THE AGEICULTURE OF THE 



Year. 



Edinburgh. Linlithgow. 



Year. 



Edinburgh. Linlithgow. 



A glance at the above shows that less than one-half of the area 

 of land is devoted to wheat than was twenty years ago. This 

 may partly be accounted for by the comparatively low market 

 price of this commodity with other productions of the farm, the 

 value of wheat being much affected by the importation from 

 foreign parts. For example, within the time named, butchers' 

 meat has been doubled, while value in wheat has remained 

 almost stationary. A very small proportion of the crop is 

 taken after naked or bare fallow, the area of which is year by 

 year becoming " small and beautifully less." Wheat is rarely 

 taken after grass, being almost invariably sown after roots or 

 beans. Farmers generally contrive to get as much seed in 

 as possible from the middle of October to the end of December, 

 but sometimes a little is left over till the spring. Both broad- 

 cast and drill sowing are practised. Where the land is clean the 

 former method is perhaps preferable, as the roots of the plants, 

 not being so confined as they are in the drills, tiller better. On 

 stiff clays, too, the broadcast system is to be recommended, but 

 on fine free-working soils drilling is preferable, as the crop is 

 more certain, there being less liability of the plants dying out in 

 winter, owing to want of firmness in the soil. Another point 

 crops up which is of manifest importance had we time to dwell 

 upon it — the best width between the drills. What this should 

 be is by no means decided, nor is it likely to be, because of the 

 varying circumstances of soil, locality, and climate ; yet we have 

 it on good authority that wide drilling almost compels clean 

 farming, as the hand and horse hoe have to be kept pretty regu- 

 larly at work in order to keep down the weeds. But close- 

 drilling also has its advocates, and when doctors differ, who can 

 decide ? For drilling at intervals of 8 inches, from 2 to 2-^- 

 bushels in autumn to 3 in spring are about the quantities used, 

 from 1^ to 2 pecks additional being allowed for broadcasting. 

 Before sowing, the wheat is steeped in a solution of blue vitriol, 

 at the rate of about 1^ lb. to each quarter of grain, as a remedy 

 against ball and smut. Many varieties of wheat are grown. Of 

 these we may mention Fenton, Hunter, and Shirreff's King 

 Richard, the latter of which is an excellent cropper. Chedham 

 and Trump are also cultivated to some extent. In the red 

 varieties, Square Head has attained to some celebrity, while 

 Spalding and Browick have their admirers. The estimated 



