during the last Four Years-, 195 



which have taken his place. The large drill is generally used for 

 corn in the souths and the intervals between the rows of young 

 corn enable the hoer to keep the land clean. As every seed, too, 

 is covered with earth, less corn is required for the purpose. In 

 Suffolk wheat is dibbled in by the hand, and a still further saving 

 of seed is effected, one bushel being sufficient, instead of two or 

 of three. This seems a strangely tedious process ; but some of us, 

 who may look on it as unworthy of a large farm, probably set our 

 beans by hand, and should blame the Scotch farmer,* who sows 

 broadcast 4 bushels per acre, while we find 1 bushel enough for 

 that crop. Even corn, I believe, is but little drilled in Scotland. 

 Should Mr. Rham be able to bring his dibbling-machine to per- 

 fection, he will have the satisfaction of saving the country one 

 bushel per acre of wheat. I should mention that there is a 

 question on the advantages of thick and thin sowing. Lord 

 Western strongly advocates liberal use of seed, but I am unable 

 to bring forward any facts on this point. 



Great hopes have been entertained that by attention to the 

 selection of seed, we might be able to increase the yield of our 

 wheat, and many new varieties have been from time to time adver- 

 tised, with favourable testimony as to their produce. Farmers, 

 however, rightly view with mistrust very long, loose heads of corn 

 and a great bulk of straw, having found such wheat liable to be laid, 

 and subject to mildew, a disease which appears to arise whenever 

 the vegetation of the plant, either from its own habit or from the 

 manure applied to it, surpasses the strength of the soil. This 

 I believe to be an important law of agriculture. Such long, loose 

 heads of corn are often found to contain very little and very thin 

 grain ; or where the grain is large, the millers will not purchase 

 it, because the bran is too thick. Our Society has offered prizes 

 for the best specimens of seed-wheat, to be adjudged after trial 

 by appointed judges; but as yet we have had no award, because the 

 wheats selected at Oxford were mixed in the sack, and the 

 Cambridge prize- wheats were not found to excel those against 

 which they were tried. There is a doubt even about the prin- 

 ciple of our selection, because, though the prize is for seed- wheat, 

 our judges can only tell us which are the best samples of 

 corn; but many farmers say that the plumpest sample is not 

 the best seed ; j that plump corn is most liable to rot in the 

 ground in wet weather : they certainly do not use inferior wheat 

 as seed from mere economy; for sometimes lean wheat is sold 

 as seed at a higher price than other corn which is better for 



* Professor Lowe's Practical Agriculture, p, 274. 



t Sprengel I find also states that the best wheat contains too much 

 gluten for seed — the gluten converting the starch into vinegar instead of 

 sugar which is the food of the young sprout. 



