534 



The Country Gcntlciiiafis Magazine 



markets are the most delicate growers, and 

 yield least produce. We give all honour 

 to anyone who devotes much time to the cul- 

 tivation of, and successfully propagates new 

 varieties, which may stand unrivalled for the 

 number of quartern loaves per bushel ; but it 

 is the farmer's interest to realize most money 

 per acre, and we have no doubt he will better 

 attain this by growing red wheats. Of these 

 there are Kessingland, Hallet's, Browick's, and 

 the Prolific Spalding, all belonging to the 

 the same family, and very large croppers ; 

 but we prefer Lammas red and Nursery red, 

 the latter being a peculiarly good seller, and 

 by all judges considered equal to the finest 

 Avhite for the baker. In the best wheat-grow- 

 ing districts of the south of England, a mix- 

 ture of Lammas and Nursery is much grown. 

 The straws being of different lengths, the 

 ears have more room, and in this respect 

 gives the mixture the character of Fenton 

 Avheat, which we consider the most prolific 

 and profitable white variety in cultivation. 

 We think it would well repay all farmers to 

 get their seed wheat from England every 

 year. We believe 8s. per qr. will fully 

 cover the extra cost, and this alone is more 

 than balanced by thinner sowing, &c., to say 

 nothing of the superiority of the crop, which 

 invariably is better after English seed. There 

 is another great advantage, it ripens at least 

 a week earlier, which is of importance for 

 wheat sown late in the winter months. To 

 illustrate the advantage of getting English 

 seed every year, we remember some time 

 ago getting a bushel of Kessingland from 

 Norfolk. From the bushel we had 7 

 sacks. It was sown again, and the crop 

 good. It was again sown, and the character 

 of the wheat seemed quite changed, and the 

 crop a poor one. This may be attributable 

 to some peculiarity of the kind of wheat. 

 We have many instances of the same wheat 

 being grown on the same farm for twenty- 

 five years and upwards, without ever being 

 renewed or changed. The wheat which we 

 would call the champion variety of Scotland 

 — viz., Fenton, three stalks of which were 

 found growing in an old quarry on Fenton- 



barns' farm in the year 1838, has been most 

 successfully grown there ever since, without 

 ever being renewed or changed over a period 

 of something like thirty years. The same 

 remark may be made regarding Hunter's 

 wheat, which has been grown on a farm in 

 the neighbourhood of Dunbar for a still 

 longer period. We do not consider these 

 facts at all condemnatory of our views re- 

 garding the advantage of change of seed from 

 the south every year, because we have never 

 heard of changed seed having been tried on 

 those farms, and its advantages have had no 

 opportunity of being proved. When a farm is 

 once celebrated for the purity of the kind of 

 grain grown there it may be dangerous 

 to introduce changed seed of the same 

 variety. Some slight mistake or mixture 

 might occur, and here, we would add, it 

 would be well for all seed growers to confine 

 themselves to one variety in order to estab- 

 lish perfect confidence in the purity of the 

 grain. There is an old saying in East Lothian 

 regarding seed grain — viz.. 



' (Jats from the lii 

 And wheat from 



lis and barley near the sea, 

 the best land there may be." 



We agree with the truth of this adage re- 

 garding wheat and barley-seed, but we 

 ([uestion the advantage for oats, unless after 

 an early season like last. In late seasons 

 high country oats cannot possess the same 

 vegetating powers of well-ripened oats in 

 lower districts, and it would be well for all 

 farmers in high country or late districts to 

 procure all their seed grain from early land. 

 The advantages of doing so are much greater 

 in regard to wheat and barley than oats. We 

 admit the possibility of a greater quantity of 

 straw from high country oats ; but the advan- 

 tage is small compared to the earlier ripening 

 qualities of low country grain. We must 

 apologise for a slight digression from our 

 subject in thus for a moment adverting 

 from wheat to oats. We now turn to the 

 trials which we m.ade this season with five 

 varieties of wheat, the results of which 

 are given as fully as we are able to do in the 

 annexed tables : — 



