538 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



have passed without the meaus of correcting my own en or of 

 ewo bushels too much, and the Hertfordshire Farmer's droll 

 tstimate of three-and-twenty too little.' 



" Here, then, is a crop of wheat yielding from its 60 rows at 

 10 iuches apart far beyond the farmer's average from 120 rows 

 10 inches apart. How could this be ? I do not mean, how 

 can a crop of wheat be grown in this way as eood as my 

 neighbours' on the same description of land well-manured — 

 for that is the subject of my whole pamphlet on growing 

 wheat, and to repeat it here would be tiresome tautology. 

 The question is— How can it be that this crop of wheat was 

 twice as good as my neighbours'? The secret is simply this ; 

 I sow only in September, and thus the plant tillers fully before 

 winter. Now, compare a fully-tillered crop with late-sown 

 wheat which has not tillered at «11, or only partially tillered, 

 and you will find that the straw of the former, from the man- 

 ner of its growth froai tbe coronal root, stands by many de- 

 srees closer and thicker on the ground than either of the latter ; 

 aud in nine seasons out of ten I can save this thick and heavy 

 crop from falling, by earthing ic up with a bout of the plough. 

 When it does fall, it lies uninjured and well-ventilated across the 

 open furrows of the intervals. Let the farmer sow early on 

 land in good heart, and his wheat, too, will tiller of course ; 

 or let him top-dress at spring with guano or nitrate of soda; 

 and iu botli cases his crop will exceed mine by a quarter or 

 more of good wheat iu his one sunny season out of ten : but 

 the other nine years, down comes the bulky msss, with the 

 old result of mildewed straw aud shrivelled grain. 



''There is another thing. The wile space of the intervals 

 admits the full force of the sun and the air, and that gives in- 

 creased health and vigour to the plant ; while its roots, spread- 

 ing far and wide without check, find a never-failing supply of 

 food for the grain, from its first formation in embryo, till it 

 flowers and fully ripens. The general result is, ears far beyond 

 the average size of the wheat ear, filled with at least a fourth 

 part more than the average amount of grains. 



"Taking these two fatts together, then, we are able to solve 

 the pro'oleta how it is that the 60 rows of the Lois-Weedon 

 moiety of au acre of wheat yield as large an average amount 

 of grain as the ordinary farmer's full acre of 120 rows. 



" I said just now that for two years my light land crops of 

 wheat have bee.i unreported, and withdrawn from public in- 

 spection, in order to be set apart for private experiments. 

 What occurred, however, in my wheat cultivation there last 

 year is so much to the point of the present inquiry, that I 

 think it right not to withhold it en this occasion. When I first 

 took this four-acre piece in hand for wheat, it was exceedingly 

 foul from the accumulated filth of perhaps a century. For 

 nine years I did battle with the weeds witri partial success; 

 and in order to shorten, if possible, the road to victory, I made 

 the following experiment: Immediately after the crop of 1858 

 was carried, I broadshared and stirred the fallow intervals, 

 killing the first growth of weed*, aud leaving it for a second 

 weed crop. At the end of a few weeks, I stirred and killed 

 the second growth. I waited another few weeks, and did the 

 same ; aud so for the last time about the end of November ; 

 and then at last got in ray wheat, nearly three months after 

 my usual time. The time for safe tillering was now over. 

 The dry wiuter and spring which followtd were much against 

 me; and I could not venture to toucli the poor miserable plant 

 till May. I !iad lost oue of my great means of competing in 

 produce with the full-acred farmer : how, then, could I escape 

 almost utter failure ? To force those thin and sparse lines to 

 tiller late in the spring would liave been to ruiu the sample by 

 an uneven and mildewed crop. My only resource, then, was 

 to seize the proper moment betseeu too soon aud too late, for 

 pampering the plant, su:h as it was, with the hoe aud the 

 plout^h; to feed it profusely in t'.iis way early and late; giving 

 the last copious meal with the subsoiler, to swell the grain as 

 the flower fell off. 



"The process succeadei to the full extent of my hopes ; for, 

 I think, of all tlie crops of wheat I have ever had, this turned 

 out the largest-heaied and most even, thii ears being more 

 thau double the size of my neighbours' on the same description 

 of soil, and grown from much tlie same sort of seed. The four 

 acres yielded eleven quarters five bushels and a-half, being 

 somewhat under thiee quarters to the raaiety of each acre. 



" Very faithfully yours, 

 Mr. John Algernon Clarke, " S. SMirn." 



"Long Sutton." 



2. Is there some peculiar and marvellous property, 

 then, both in the clays and light lands of Mr. Smith's 

 neighbourhood, giving a miraculous degree of fecundity 

 that cannot be expected elsewhere ? No. There are 

 many examples of successive wheat-growing, by means 

 of iatercultural tillage, which show its practicability on 

 soils of very diverse qualities, though my space forbids 

 any description of the methods employed. And at the 

 same time, it must be owned that many persons have 

 tried and failed ; though I believe, in all cases, either 

 from a misunderstanding of the principles of procedure 

 or inattention to essential details of the management. 

 Mr. Jones, of Lois Weedon, has grown half an acre of 

 wheat on Mr. Smith's system for nine years, the ave- 

 rage yield being 36^ bushels per acre , the soil and sub- 

 soil a gravelly loam, the gravel predominating. The 

 Rev. Sir George Robinson has grown 4| acres of wheat 

 for ten or eleven years, with an average yield of 28| 

 bushels per acre ; the soil a mixed sandy clay, and the 

 subsoil a stiff clay, the fallow intervals being dug 8 

 inches deep by spade or fork. Jethio TuU — whose 

 name should always be received with reverence by an 

 assembly of agriculturists — originated this culture of 

 successive wheat crops upon a thin chalk soil, and per- 

 formed his tillage by means of a cumbrous plough and 

 " boe-plougb." He had at one time 120 acres of wheat 

 growing on his novel method, and reaped 13 successive 

 crops with yields considerably surpassing those of his 

 neighbours. I regret that more cannot be said in the 

 present limited paper concerning the father of the very 

 subject we are now met to consider ; and still more do 

 I regret that there should be a necessity for such a dis- 

 cussion as the present no less than 127 years after the 

 publication of Tull's great discoveries in the science of 

 cultivation. Mr. Dean, a disciple of Tull in the last 

 century, grew on a very stiff soil tilled by the plough a 

 produce of 27 bushels per acre for twenty years in suc- 

 cession. The Rev. F. Close, shortly afterwards, grew 

 on 5 acres of mixed loamy soil 24 bushels per acre for 

 three successive years, also cultivating with the plough. 

 Mr. Beaman grew 23 bushels per acre for six years on 

 a stiff loam resting on marl and clay, the plough being 

 the principal implement of tillage ; and Mr. Box, about 

 twenty years ago, grew 27 bushels on one acre for eight 

 years together, upon tolerably good land, by ploughing 

 between the rows. These facts are given in Mr. Burnett's 

 admirable volume (recently published) " On Tillage as a 

 Substitute for Manure." There are also various other 

 cases ; some of complete success, others which (either from 

 the manual labour required in the turnip season, or from 

 other difficulties) were ultimately abandoned. I have 

 been favoured with details of the Lois -Weedon wheat- 

 grosving of Mr. W. Greene, of Mortivals, Little Can- 

 field, Chelmsford. This gentleman has now 53 acres on 

 this plan ; on 7 acres he has obtained three crops, on 7 

 acres two crops, on 24 acres one crop, aud the remainder 

 was put in this last autumn. The land is mostly heavy, 

 with a clay subsoil. The wheat is sown by " Sigma's" 

 dibble in treble rows a foot apart, with three feet inter- 

 vals. These intervals are dug by hand 2 spits deep, 

 about 3 inches of the subsoil being turned up the first 



