Report on Spring-soion Wheats in 1873. 97 



We now turn to the following 



24 REPORTS FROM MEDIUM SOILS. 



1. HONINGHAM ThOKPE, NoBFOLK. 



(420 acres ; only 40 of which are in Grass.) 



Mixed soil ; dry climate. 



Fpur- and eight-course system of cropping. 



No spring wheat usually sown, except a field of turnips has been too heavily 

 manured and sheeped for barley. 



A 14-acre field of early turnips was fed off with sheep, eating cake, in 

 October and November, 1872. About the middle of November, 30 bushels 

 of Spalding wheat were dressed with Down's Farmers' Friend ready for sowing. 

 There was no chance of getting on the land to drill the wheat until early in 

 February, when it was put in well. It was top-dressed with f cwt. (6 st.) 

 of nitrate of soda, 1 cwt. of superphosphate, and 2 cwts. of salt per acre in 

 April. Some of the grain ripened prematurely from the great heat of July : 

 and parts of the field were blighted. The yield is about 4 quarters per acre. 

 The grain is small, and the sample pretty but light, weighing some 3 lbs. 

 per bushel less than the autumn wheat grown from the same seed. 



Another field of 14 acres of swedes was fed off with sheep, and in February 

 it was sown with Nursery wheat. It received the same top-dressing as the 

 other field. It was a poor crop of thin wheat, estimated at 28 or 30 bushels 

 per acre. I have reason to believe this Nursery seed-wheat was sown in the 

 autumn of 1871. I know the Spalding was, as it was grown upon this farm. 

 I am this autumn (1873) sowing the Sj)alding wheat, which was drilled last 

 February. I should never sow a really spring wheat in the autumn ; but 

 although 1 should prefer sowing spring wheat in the spring, I should never 

 have any hesitation in sowing autumn wheat in the spring, if I had any difli- 

 culty in procuring any good spring varieties. 



Both fields were horse-hoed and hand-weeded. One field was seeded down 

 with sainfoin, the other with clover. The spring wheat was ready to cut 15- 

 or 20 days after I began harvest with the autumn wheat. I consider the 

 yield of the spring wheats to be from 4 to 8 bushels below the autumn wheats; 

 but then the wheat sown in the autumn was grown on well-manured lerr 

 ground, and had no top-dressing appUed in the spring. 



Clabe Sewell Eead. 



2. EiDiNG CouBT, Datchkt, neab Windsor. 

 (300 acres : viz., 230 iicres Arable ; 70 Pasture and Meadow.) 



Soil. — About two-thirds of the arable land is a nice friable loam, about 

 4 feet deep, with a gravelly subsoil ; the remaining one-third is a very light 

 loam, 18 inches deep, on very gravelly subsoil. The grass land is partly of 

 the same kind, and partly alluvial soil. The climate is mild and dry, the 

 farm being in the valley of the Thames. 



Eolation. — The better portion of the arable land is farmed on a six-course 

 system, viz. : — (1) Eoots, i.e. mangel-wurzel and swedes ; (2) oats or barley ; 

 (3) clover ; (4) wheat ; (5) beans, peas, or potatoes ; (6) wheat. 



The lighter part of the arable land is farmed on the four-course system, 

 viz. : — (1) Italian rye-grass, trifolium, and tares, succeeded by turnips and 

 rape (all the green crops are fed off by sheep with corn, cake, and clover 

 chaff) ; (2) barley ; (3) clover ; (4) wheat. Thus two white-straw crops are 

 not grown in succession. 



VOL. X. — S. S. H 



