Report on Spring-sown Wheats in 1873. 87 



4. College Farm, Pertenhall, Beds. 

 (400 acres Arable, 320 Grass.) 



Soil. — The arable land is clay, with the exception of a small portion partially 

 mixed with gravel. A portion has been brought into cultivation from grass 

 and wood during the last 20 years. The remainder is an ordinary clay soil ; 

 some of it liable to run together and bind — the worst land possible for a wet 

 season. With the exception of a few acres, the whole is drained 4 feet deep. 



notation. — The four-course system is generally followed, except on the new 

 land, where wheat is sometimes sown after oats. 



The breadth of wheat is generally about 120 acres, sown in the autumn and 

 early part of the winter. 



The excessive and continued rains of the autumn and winter of 1872 

 rendered it impossible to get in the seed, excepting on the small portion of 

 drier land, and some that had been broken up early, so that about 70 acres 

 intended for wheat was left until the spring, when the whole was sown. 



I give first the results of the spring-sown ■« heat : — 



Field No. 1. Browick red : sown the first week in March after seed clover. 

 Manured and Umed, to destroy the slugs, in the autumn. Produce, a little 

 over 3 J quarters per acre. 



No. 2. Golden Drop : sown first week in March after oats. From a small 

 portion thrashed, produce estimated at 3 quarters per acre. 



No. 3. Sown the second week in March with Langham red, Browick,' and 

 Eivett's. The produce of each kind not known, but the return from the whole 

 field will be less per acre than from Nos. 1 and 2. 



No. 4. Sown with Nursery wheat second week in April after beans. 

 This field was too wet to bear the horses until the beginning of April, and 

 then it hardened to such a degree that it had to be broken up with heavy 

 implements. The crop did not come to perfection at all, and the small quan- 

 tity produced will only be fit for feeding pui^poses. 



No. 5. Sown with April bearded wheat the last week in April, on recently 

 broken-up grass-land ; fine dry seed-bed. Crop and quahty good. Not 

 thrashed. A small part of this field was sown with Nursery wheat at the 

 same time, but this came to nothing. 



The whole of the land was jjloughed in the autumn or early in the winter, 

 and each crop was hoed and weeded. The reaping-machine commenced with 

 the autumn-sown wheats on the 1 1th August, and the spring-sown were from 

 a week to ten days later. 



The general results arrived at seem to be these : — The bearded spring wheat 

 did well. The Nursery — considered by some a spring wheat — was a complete 

 failure. This might arise in some part from being sown late ; but the few 

 ears of other autumn wheat in the crop wei'e very superior to the Nursery. 



Comparing the same varieties of wheat sown respectively in the autumn 

 and spring, the comparison, as far as quality is concerned, is very much in 

 favour of autumn- sown ; the difference in value being from 4s. to 5s. per 

 quarter at the same weight, — the difference in weight being about 2 lbs. per 

 bushel. 



As far as quantity is concerned, the comparison (circumstances being alike) 

 is rather in favour of the spring-sown. For it must be borne in mind that 

 the land sown in the autumn was just that which presented the best seed-bed 

 (though not the better wheat soil) ; and here, even where the crop was upon 

 the whole good, the general result was not more than from 3 to 4 quarters 

 per acre. 



Had the land left until the spring been sown in the autumn, over the greater 

 part there would have been scarcely any crop. A small portion of the same 

 character was sown in the autumn, and the constant wet, with the help of 



