2/8 



TJie Country Genilanaiis Magazine 



culturisls, which I will here briefly refer to ; 

 and first, I would allude to seed and its pre- 

 paration for sowing. All seed should be 

 thoroughly ripe, and of selected quality, 

 grown expressly for seed, carefully threshed 

 and cleaned, all lighter and imperfect grains 

 thrown out. You may say this is a big job 

 where a large area is to be sown, requiring 

 a large amount of seed ; I am perfectly 

 well aware of this fact, but it is no more 

 proportionally than for the less area and the 

 importance of the crop demands. This se- 

 lected seed should, just previous to sowing, 

 be washed in salt water strong enough to 

 bear up a potato — drained and dried off in 

 dry slaked lime. In washing, all light seed 

 and all impurities should be skimmed off. 

 The importance of this careful preparation 

 will be evident in the cropped product. The 

 next and last item, which should properly 

 come first, is ploughing and preparing 

 the ground for sowing. The import- 

 ance of thorough ploughing and fining the 

 soil for the seed is seldom fully realized, and 



less frequently practised. The soil cannot 

 impart to the growing plant its nutriment 

 unless it is unlocked ; and the key to this 

 unlocking is pulverization of the soil through 

 ploughing, &c. Of equal importance is it that 

 the soil should be broken up deep down in 

 the subsoil, that neither drought nor wet may 

 affect it as it would were the soil less open ; 

 neither will the frosts of winter be so destruc- 

 tive because of the heaving of the soil to 

 throw out the plants. Another advantage 

 in thorough ploughing is, that the roots of the 

 plants can freely spread themselves, and 

 nourishment is freely imparted to them, a 

 more rapid and early growth ensues, while 

 insects and other enemies have their destruc- 

 tiveness thwarted by the plant's superior 

 rapidity and strength of growth, getting ahead 

 of their season of greatest destructiveness. 

 A little attention to the main hints in this 

 article by the great class of wheat-growers 

 would make an immense difference in the 

 aggregate product of this great cereal. 



WILD OATS. 



THERE can be little difficulty in re- 

 cognising, under the signature of " J. B.," 

 the fine Roman hand of Professor Buckman, 

 upon the subject of " Wild Oats." They are, 

 as we all know, easily sown, but when once 

 they take root in the land, rather difficult to 

 get rid of. Yet out of these wild oats or 

 their consanguineous neighbours have sprung 

 forth under careful cultivation excellent food 

 for man and beast. 



In BclPs Messenger a correspondent asks, 

 " How are these pests [wild oats] :o be got 

 rid of?" He gives his opinion that deep 

 cultivation is the cause of the luxuriance of 

 the plants, which under the circumstances are 

 neither more nor less than weeds. Here 

 are the exact words the correspondent of our 

 contemporary puts in the form of a query : — 



The extraordinary quantity of wild oats that are 



everywhere growing this season leads me to ask if any 

 of your readers can account for it, or, how it happens 

 that after land has been cultivated beyond its- usual 

 depth, either by horse or steam power, wild oats 

 always appear to come more thickly than before. But 

 the most important question remains —how are these 

 pests to be got rid of? 



The reply to this by '' J. B." is as follows :— 



Our correspondent has here directed atten- 

 tion to a weed plant, which during the late 

 wet seasons has been very much on the 

 increase. Last year we had frequent inquiries 

 as to its nature and habits, and this season 

 great anxiety is everywhere expressed about 

 a plant which in moist summers grows to 

 twice the height and size that it usually does 

 in dry ones. 



We have before us three plants from our 

 own wheat field, with culms an inch in 



