84 Bcport on Sjjrin(/-soicn Wheats in 1873. 



The efi'cct of early steam-ploughing was that wheat planted in the autiinm 

 did not perish, which to a great extent was the case in this neighbourhood ; 

 but the seed-bed was unhealthy, and the plant did not tiller as usual. It 

 became impossible to plant the other half until February, when the land 

 worked well. So I had about 95 acres of autumn-sown wheat, and the same 

 quantity sown in spring. My first efforts having been directed to the plant- 

 ing of the heaviest and worst portion of the land intended for wheat, it 

 followed that the spring-sown portion was all upon the best land. The result 

 was, that the autumn-sown, as well as I can estimate it, may be 4 quarters 

 per acre ; the spring-planted, not more than 3 quarters — the average of pre- 

 vious years being 5 quarters. All the spring-sown wheat was mildewed 

 more or less, the worst being a field of 25 acres — good land in high condition — 

 which I had the misfortune to be prevailed upon to sow with " Hallett's 

 Pedigree Victoria Wheat ; " the temptation to do so being the offer of the 

 seedsman who supplied me with it to take all I grew at 5s. per quarter more 

 than it would be worth to grind ; and the seed being a very fine sample. For 

 Bome time after going out of blossom this piece looked like growing 6 quarters 

 per acre. Nothing coidd be more promising; but it blighted, and is almost 

 worthless ; lit only for fowls and pheasants. The gamekeecper has bought 

 part of it in the straw, as he said " there was just enough in it to emploj'^ the 

 t)irds and keep them at home." So much for neglecting the old adage, that 

 it is wise to " let well alone." The other wheats, " Lincoln red" and " Essex 

 rough chaff," though mildewed, are not so much so as to affect the quality ; 

 and if I had sown either of them upon this 25 acres, I should have been 

 better off by at least 200?. I send two ears of the "Lincoln red;" the 

 " Esses rough chaff" is very well known. 



As to the preparation of the land for wheat, we never, or very rarely, 

 apply farmyard-manure immediately to that crop ; it always goes to the pre- 

 ceding croiD — roots, vetches, cabbages, or beans. Mangolds are our main 

 root-crop, manured with 30 tons per acre of good dung and 4 cwt. of guano, 

 when it was to be had, and since then, with an equal cost of some artificial 

 manure. This preparation leaves enough in the land to grow wheat ; and the 

 clover after it rarely fails. All green crops, except mangolds, are consumed 

 on the land by sheep, which, for a great part of the year, have cake or corn. 

 We hand-hoe the wheat crop twice, and weed it. 



Harvest was finished in September — a showery, tedious time, but not wet 

 enough to cause any serious injury. There was only about ten days' difference 

 in the time of ripening between the autumn- and sj^ring-sown wheat, partly 

 owing to the latter being grown upon wai'mer land. None has yet been 

 thrashed. 



I may mention, as au illustration of the difficulty of the wheat seed-time of 

 1872-3, that in a parish near Birmingham, which I went over in September — 

 chiefly strong land in a backward climate, well drained — only a small portion 

 of the wheat had been sown in the autumn ; of this fully four-fifths had 

 perished, the other fifth was blighted, and worth little. The land unsown in the 

 autumn, as well as that on which the j)lant failed, was sown in the spring, 

 jmrt with the bearded April wheat, part with old Talavera. Both were very 

 much better than any of that sown in the autumn, even where there had 

 been no failure of plant. So much for the vanity of our calculations, and so 

 much for the effect of " diligence" in such a season as 1872. Those who 

 did least in the parish I allude to fared best. Happily this is not often 

 the case ! 



C. Eandell. 



