302 Report on Wheats. 



third ; No. 5, fifth ; No. 6^ second. No. 1 came up very in- 

 differently ; indeed it seemed, from the incessant rains, which had 

 continued ahnost without intermission from the time of sowing to 

 tliis period, to have perished in the ground ; and as this wheat 

 never afterwards improved, but was entirely hoed in again in 

 February, it may be considered as having totally failed with me. 

 Last year, however, in which there were several very sharp frosts 

 and a good deal of catching weather, I reaped a most capital crop 

 of Belle Vue Talavera, nearly 5 quarters an acre, which had been 

 sown in October, 1840. I'his wheat in our climate I consider 

 essentially a spring wheat, and as such invaluable, for in the parts 

 of the trial-field this year where the plant was very deficient, or 

 had totally failed, I hoed it in from the Gth of February to the be- 

 ginning of March, and the wheat so sown was ready for the sickle 

 as early as those sown in October. On the 2 1st of November I 

 found the appearances of the wheats thus noted : — Whites, No. 2, 

 thud ; No. 3, fourth ; No. 4, second ; No. 5, fifth ; No. 6, first : 

 Reds, Nos. 1 and 2, first; No. 3, fourth; No. 4, second; No. b, 

 third. The first fortnight in January was very trying to the plant, 

 as we had alternate sharp frosts and sudden thaws wdthout snow. 

 On the 22nd the wheats were going off terribly, and the wire- 

 worm was general in its ravages : I immediately put the heaviest 

 roller I could get on the field and rolled it till the surface was as 

 hard as a turnpike-road ; still the damage apparently done was 

 immense, and a neighbouring farmer guessed that the product of 

 the field would not be above 16 bushels per acre : the rolling, 

 however, slopped the progress of the wire-worm. On the 5th of 

 February I began hoeing in Belle Vue Talavera on those spots of 

 the trial -pieces where the plant had nearly disappeared : of the 

 whites the whole of No. 1 was put in afresh ; of No. 5, about two- 

 thirds of an acre : of the reds a little was put in in Nos. 1 and 2 ; 

 nearly all in No. 3 ; and about half an acre in No. 5 : so that of 

 the white wheats Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6, and of the reds. No. 4, were 

 the only wheats which stood the winter for crop as first planted. 

 On the 2nd of April I find that the wheats on the whole were 

 very bad ; but from the 25th of INIarch until the 23rd of April, 

 not sufficient rain fell at King's Weston to wet the ground, and at 

 this period the wheats began to mend ; their improvement being 

 gradual, but extraordinary. I was absent fix)m home during the 

 blooming, but was informed by my farming-man that very little 

 difference was perceptible between the flowering of the whites, and 

 that the reds came into bloom from a week to ten days after the 

 whites. On my return from London at the end of the first week 

 in July, I found the general improvement still progressing; the 

 tillering, considering the nature of the soil, had been extraordinary, 

 and the ears w^ere upright and full : I therefore carried out the 



