90 Report on Sprivg-soton Wheats in 1873. 



6. Burns Hall, Lea Down, Devon. 

 (3235 acres Arable, and 187^ Pasture.) 



Tlie Soil in the vale is principally clay, rather poor. The hilly part is light 

 ami stony — middling land for oats, barley, and turnips, but not of any use for 

 wheat. The winters are very long, being close to Dartmoor. The cattle are 

 taken into house about November, and are not able to turn to grass until 

 May. 



Rotation. — "We generally plough lea for wheat, turning the grass under with 

 skim points. After wheat we take turnips or mangolds, then wheat and seeds. 

 The light land is ploughed out of lea for oats ; then turnips are taken and 

 folded with sheep. The land is then limed and barley and seeds are sown. 



About 30 to 50 acres are generally sown in the autumn, this place being too 

 wet and cold for spring sowing. We could not sow any wheat in the autumn 

 of 1872 ; it being so very Avet. 36 acres were sown in February, part of it 

 being the second time of sowing. 



The kind sown was red-straw white ; the sample very poor, having suffered 

 very wet weather in harvest. 



The manure was lime, 30 or 40 bushels [per acre. The corn was weeded by 

 women in the spring. 



We had a very wet and troublesome harvest beginning about the middle 

 of August, and we had about 7 to 10 " bags " per acre, a bag being 2 bushels. 



In this neighbourhood the produce will generally fall very far short of an 

 average crop of wheat, and the samples will be very poor. All spring-sown 

 wheats have failed, and they generally do in this part. 



We find the best time for sowing wheat is September or October, that the 

 plant may be well rooted before winter sets in. We sow about 2 bushels per 

 acre, putting the seed as deeply in the ground as possible. I should think the 

 average crop in this neighbourhood would be 15 " bags " per acre ; but with 

 early tillage, good management, and care, we often reach 20 bags per acre. 



.J. HORSWELL, JUN. 



7. Brinsop Court, Hereford. 



(Arable Land, 280 acres; Pasture, 290 acres; Hop Land, 12 acres; and 250 

 acres of Coppice-wood — total, 832 acres.) 



Tlie Soil. — The general quality is a rather heavy loam, with some clay and 

 some gravelly land or lighter loam. 



Rotation. — Variable, but in general as follows : — Wheat, turnips, barley, 

 seeds, wheat, beans, peas or vetches, then wheat again, 



I sow all I can in autumn ; but owing to the continual wet, it was im- 

 possible in 1872, except on the drier soils, to get any wheat in except on the 

 clover lea ; and, where the fields were wet, they were better left alone, as they 

 were hardly dry enough to plough all the autumn. 



47 acres out of 84 were sown in autumn, and 53 acres sown in the spring. 



Biddle's wheat, the sort I sow most of, is, in my opinion, the best autumn 

 wheat grown in the neighbourhood ; it also does very well on good land 

 sown up to February, and even later. It yields well, has nice straw, and, as 

 a rule, stands the winter well, although I think on very cold, wet land a 

 rougher wheat does better. 



It is a great favourite wheat with millers, and they will give nearly as much 

 for it as for white, indeed quite as much as for rough white. 



