Report on Spring-sown Wheats in 1873. 99 



I know only of one sort of spring wheat, the bearded April wheat, I should 

 not sow any other sort after the first week in March ; other varieties may be 

 sown up to the end of February, or as late as the first week in March, after 

 turnips fed off with sheep, or on well-tilled land with plenty of good manure 

 in it, or Peruvian guano ; as I consider wheat sown so late requires a manure 

 that will act quickly, such as sheep manure or guano. The varieties which I 

 have seen succeed best when sown after Christmas are Chidham, Morton's Red 

 Straw, Nursery, and Talavera. But I would not sow either of these after the 

 first week in March, and then onl}' on well-tilled, well-manured soil. I have 

 seen and heard of several complete failures of Nursery wheat sown in spring ; 

 one, not three miles from here, never came to harvest. Some years ago, a 

 farmer bought at Guildford Market what ought to have been April wheat, but, 

 from some mistake. Nursery wheat was sent instead, and the whole, nearly 

 30 acres, was a complete failure. The seeds of April and Nursery wheat; are 

 sometimes so nearly alike, that they cannot be distinguished from each other ; 

 hence great care is required in buying of strangers. 



Winter wheat on this farm is sown on fallow-land, clover lea, after beans, 

 or peas, and on land after tares fed by sheep. The wheat sown on land once 

 ploughed after clover is the most productive, if not thinned by slugs, which 

 it is very apt to be, especially in damp autumns after a cold wet summei*. 

 The manure mostly used is good farmyard. Pei-uvian guano is considerably 

 used and much liked ; occasionally shoddy, also woollen rags. Peruvian guano 

 and nitrate of soda are used as a top-dressing when required. Most of the 

 corn is drilled on this farm, and the wheat is hoed, if the weather permits, in 

 the spring. 



Spring wheat (April wheat) is the last grain crop sown in the spring, being 

 «own in preference to barley as late as the middle of May, after the last fed 

 swedes. 



Harvest commences here from the last week of July till the middle of 

 August with the winter wheats, closely followed by the April wheat. The 

 produce of this year's crop has not been ascertained. 



I think there are very few of the ordinary winter wheats that will bear 

 sowing so late as the first week in March ; they are very apt to blight, and 

 grow a poor crop of bad, thin wheat. There are localities and particular soils 

 where they succeed, but it is the exception, not the rule. If wheat sowing 

 cannot be finished by the middle of February, it is advisable to wait for a 

 good season in March, or even iu April, and sow the bearded April wheat. 

 I have grown April wheat at different times, beginning in 1848, up to the 

 present. I drill most of my wheat about 10 inches apart, and prefer doing so 

 on land that has been ploughed some little time — here termed stale land. If 

 ploughed in fine weather, all lea-ground is best ploughed some time before 

 mowing for fallow-land. I find two tines with the harrows better than one, 

 the wheat always comes up better and more even. 



James Fames. 



4. Whitfield Faem, Faleield, Gloucestershire. 



(528 acres, 344 of which are in permanent Pasture.) 



Tlie Soil varies from a rather weak sand to a stiff clay, but the greater part 

 is a good and productive soil. The climate is variable, but favourable, on 

 the whole, to the growth and cultivation of all agricultural crops. The land 

 is farmed on the four-field course : — that is, (1) roots ; (2) part barley, part 

 oats, and part wheat, sown down with mixed clover and rye-grass seeds ; 

 (3) clover mown for hay ; (4) wheat. The extent sown with wheat in the 



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