302 On Wheat 



growino: crops many new and valuable varieties are likely to be 

 obtained, and thus there will be wheat best suited for every de- 

 scription of soil. The public are greatly indebted to Colonel Le 

 Couteur for giving the result of his experiments made as to the 

 produce and value of many varieties of wheat ; but these experi- 

 ments carried on in the Isle of Jersey, cannot be satisfactorily 

 conclusive for the midland or northern counties of England. It 

 does not, in my idea, add to the value of any kind of v/heat that it 

 produces an extra quantity of straw, and thus takes an extra 

 quantity of nourishment from the land ; besides this, a greater 

 price must be given for the threshing, and there is a less chance 

 of its being cleanly done. 



Besides being a serious loss, it is mortifying to have a crop of 

 growing wheat that, from good management, had a most promising 

 appearance, spoiled by grubs. It is difficult to say what is best 

 to be done in such a case ; the crop cannot be restored, and it is 

 impossible to stop the progress of under-ground ravages, for that 

 which would kill the grubs would kill all the corn remaining on 

 the land. When the crop is attacked by slugs above-ground, 

 nothing will do so much good as slaked lime sown over the crop 

 before sunrise. Some years ago, late in the spring, we discovered 

 that there were an immense number of slugs in a good full crop of 

 my wheat. Cabbage-leaves were placed at some yards' distance all 

 over the crop. After their night's feeding, the creatures, which were 

 snails without shells, took refuge from the sun on the under side 

 of the leaves, from whence, by shaking over baskets every morn- 

 ing for about a fortnight, 2 bushels of grubs were collected. 

 Turnip-leaves will do, but not so well as cabbage. Seldom have 

 the wheat crops on strong land been so much inj ured by the grub 

 as in December, 1841 ; consequently, seldom on such soils have 

 the crops appeared so bad as in April, 1842. On examination 

 into a crop, I found a great portion of the grain that had been 

 sown, with the inside eaten out. All the snail tribe like a clay 

 soil ; sand does not suit their slimy coats : the wheat on the loamy 

 soils never looked better. Under-ground ravages cannot be 

 stopped ; if the root is eaten, the plant must die ; when the blade 

 only has been eaten, fair crops, though somewhat later, may be 

 expected. In those parts of a wheat-field where in March or 

 April there appears to be scarcely any crop, such parts may suc- 

 cessfully be filled up by transplanting in moist weather : there- 

 fore on land where wheat is liable to be eaten at the root by 

 under-ground grubs, it may be well to have some part of the field 

 sown with a double quantity of seed, to furnish plants if wanted ; 

 if not, to be thinned by hoeing : or to sow a piece of land to be 

 entirely a seed-bed. A writer on agriculture recommends all 

 wheat crops to be obtained by transplanting in spring. Although 



