114 



Report on Spring-soivn Wheats in 1873. 



best sort to depend on I have always found the Nursery, but this last year 

 a neighbour of mine has sown some Golden Drop the same day as some 

 Nursery — the latter part of January — and its yield was 6 bushels per acre 

 more, and the weight 2 lbs. per bushel more than the Nursery. Seasons will 

 beat every person's judgment. 



W. Chilcott. 



Fig. S.—SMrrefs 

 White Wheat. 



19. Anick Grange, Hexham. 



(320 acres under Tillage : Old Grass, 88 ; Eough Pasture, 56.) 



Soil dry; known as turnip and barley soil, but the stronger portions grow- 

 fair wheat in favourable seasons. 



Flotation, — One and two years seeds ; oats ; potatoes, mangolds, and white 

 turnips ; wheat ; swedes ; barley or wheat sown 

 out with grass seeds. 



No strictly autumn wheat is sown, the earliest 

 being that after potatoes. All the rest is after 

 turnips, and seldom above 30 to 35 acres are 

 sown previous to the new year. 



The difSculties on this farm in 1872 were 

 chiefly in getting swedes off the land. 



Eighty acres were sown with wheat in January, 

 February, and the first week of March. The sorts 

 sown were Shirreffs (Fig. 8), a beautiful wheat,* 

 requiring better soil than 1 have — on good deep 

 loams it yields well, I believe ; with me it did 

 not — " Hunter's," my favourite — and a little 

 Talavera where the sheep finished in spring. 



None of my wheat was either manured (except 

 by the sheep previous to sowing) or hoed. 



We had slow, tedious harvest. Commenced 

 cutting August 11th, finished cutting September 

 12th. Corn was all saved in good condition, 

 but it was all done in catches, owing to heavy 

 rains, accompanied, however, by high, cold, and 

 dry winds. I have not threshed sufficient to 

 know productiveness. Hunter's wheat, no doubt, 

 gives more quarters per acre than either of the 



others. 



Thomas Dods. 



* The Bearded white wheat here mentioned and 

 depicted was introduced by Mr. Patrick Shirrefi' 

 of Haddington, a veteran plant improver, whosa 

 labours in the work of selecting, cultivating, and 

 liybridising wheats — long acknowledged by his 

 brother farmers in Scotland — have been described 

 in his little volume entitled ' Improvement of the 

 Cereals,' &c. Printed for private cii'culation by 

 Messrs. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and 

 London, 1873. I add here a note received from 

 Mr. Shirreflf, to whom I had commimicated the 

 plan of this report, in which it will be seen that 

 he imagines a much more elaborate and ambitious 

 scheme than any that had been projected. The 



