408 Afjrlcidtural Tour 



^vo\e(\, in consequence of the ready access to these deposits of 

 marl. 



On some of the otherwise bare slopes of the sandy and gravelly 

 banks by the road side the mare's- tail and the colt's -foot 

 abounded, the latter confirming the above opinion as to the 

 presence of lime in the soil, and the former showing its power to 

 yield with ease the abundant supply of silica so necessary to the 

 growth of corn.* 



A railway has been for some time projected between Hamburg 

 and Kiel ; and the Danish government has given its sanction to the 

 plan. It would no doubt be a great benefit to the district, though 

 the prospects of a remunerating return to the shareholders are 

 very doubtful. The slender foundation on which the proposers 

 of this line are content to found their hopes was shown by a para- 

 graph in a Hamburg newspaper which caught my eye at Kiel. 

 The projectors of the Altona and Kiel Railway announced that 

 they now believed that the return, instead of being only 2J per 

 cent, on the outlay, might be safely estimated at 2i-|- per cent. 



* I had no opportunity of inquiring into the mode of cultivation adopted 

 for the lolieat crops of this neighbourhood, nor whether it differed materially 

 from the improved husbandry of Funen, described in a subsequent page. It 

 appears, however, from the statements of Colonel Le Couteur in his very in- 

 teresting work ' On the Varieties of Wheat' (pp. 39 and 72), that the Kiel 

 wheat (a very productive variety, known by the name of Duck's-bill, and 

 having 'an exceedingly fine ear) gives a Hour which is only fit for making 

 pastry, and is too tenacious for household bread. Now this tenacity is due 

 to the presence of a large quantity of gluten in the flour ; and the quantity 

 of gluten is generally supposed to depend upon the quantity of animal or 

 other manure capable of yielding ammonia, which is present in the soil. But 

 we can scarcely, I think, attribute this quality of the Kiel wheat to any high 

 manuring of the land, above the highly-farmed districts of our own island. 

 Does it depend, then, upon the nature of the soil, upon the large quantity of 

 lime it contains, or which is added to it in the form of marl? This may 

 have some influence, since it is said that in the county Down the wheat grown 

 on soils which rest upon limestone is richer in gluten than the other wheats 

 of the county. If so, this would be an interesting fact in regard to the 

 action of lime, and might help Colonel Le Couteur to the kind of soil on 

 which this variety of wheat may be expected to thrive. It would show also 

 that the proportion of gluten in wheat is not dependent solely on the kind 

 and quantity of manuic added to the soil. 



But another question still remains. Is the proportion of gluten not de- 

 pendent upon the variety of wheat also as well as upon the soil or manure? 

 Would, for example, the Duck's-bill, sown alongside of another variety, and 

 under the same circumstances, produce a flour much richer in gluten than 

 that of the other ? This is a very interesting theoretical question ; one 

 not unlikely, I think, to be answered in the affirmative, and which is not un- 

 susceptible of an important practical bearing. Perhaps Colonel Le Couteur 

 could throw some light on this question. 



The reader will recollect that the nutritive qualities of wheaten flour are 

 supposed by some to be almost directly in proportion to the quantity of gluten 

 it contains. 



