"96 Report on Sprinrj-sown Wheats in 1873. 



sown so late as the first week in March. " Golden Drop " proved 

 hardly so productive. " Nursery " wheat sown in the second week 

 of April yielded nothing. " April " wheat, sown the end of 

 April, yielded a good crop of good quality. " Rivett's " wheat, 

 sown the 15th of March, produced a very good crop.- — ^Mr. May, 

 of Elford Park, near Tamworth, found Rivett's, sown on the 

 22nd of February, the best crop of the year. The difference of 

 spring-sown and autumn-sown wheat (Essex White) is repre-r 

 sented by photographs of two ears. The engraving is one-half 

 the natural size ; and the woodcut on page 89, gives even a 

 more favourable representation of the spring as compared with 

 the autumn-sown crop, than the actual ears appear to do. The 

 lesson here, as almost invariably throughout the reports, is, that 

 the delay of seed-time beyond the usual autumn period is a mis- 

 fortune. — Mr. Edwards, of Brinsop Court, Hereford, speaks well 

 of Riddle's wheat, of which there are good accounts also from other 

 farms. It yields well, even from a February sowing. — Mr. Clarke's 

 report from the rich alluvial soils of South Lincolnshire, which 

 is almost the only testimony in favour of spring sowings, scarcely 

 describes a personal experience of them. — Mr. Sherrard, of Kin- 

 nersley Manor, Reigate, reports that tlie " Velvet-ear " wheat, 

 sown in spring, was of somewhat inferior quality to that which 

 had been sown in autumn. — Mr. J. C. Adkins, farming the rich, 

 heavy soils near Stratford, found the "■ Golden Drop" or " Kentish 

 High Back" wheat, whether sown in autumn or spring, yield 

 satisfactorily : the actual threshings, indeed, had been rather in 

 favour of the latter. — Mr. Hudson, farming near Pershore, sowed 

 Hallett's Golden Drop and the Square-headed wheat, so late as 

 March 5th ; and they both turned out pretty well. The Browick 

 Red wheat, planted in January, however, beat them all. — Mr. 

 Hilder, of Woking, reporting generally, says that, as a rule, they 

 do not object to sow the same ordinary wheats in spring that 

 they sow in autumn, and they frequently do as well, and sometimes 

 better, than when winter sown. 



We are probably right in accepting this report as truly inti- 

 mating that the experience of a single year is insufficient to 

 ■<letermine practice ; but it is plain that, upon the whole, the 

 reports thus epitomised teach the superiority of the autum-sown 

 varieties, — the failure of the Nursery wheat when sown in spring, 

 although it, of all the winter wheats, has hitherto been supposed 

 best to bear late sowing, — and the exceptional superiority ot 

 Rivett's wheat when sown so late as even February and March. 



The failure of the spring-sown Nursery wheat last year, cor- 

 roborates Mr. H. M. Jenkins' report of the French experience 

 of the same variety, given in the ' Journal,' vol. viii., in his 

 account of the " French Peasant-Farmers' Seed Fund.' 



