Report on Spring-sown Wheats m 1873. 117 



When a favourable opportunity occurred early in February, the balance of 

 the above quantity was sown, and as much more as brought the whole extent 

 sown at that time up to about 12 acres. 



The kind sown in autumn was Fenton, and in spring the Northumberland 

 Eed. In the case of the field of 10 acres, after turnips, partly sown in autumn, 

 the remainder was sown in spring with Fenton, to avoid the inconvenience of 

 having two sorts in so small a piece. But for this it would have been avoided, 

 as Fenton is especially liable to mildew when spring-sown. For autumn- 

 sowing it is the most productive sort I have yet tried. Its stiffness of straw 

 adapts it peculiarly for growthy soils in high condition. The Northumberland 

 Eed was introduced on Tweedside by the Messrs. CuUey towards the end of 

 last autumn, and has since maintained its place, both for late-autumn and 

 early-spring sowing, for which it is specially adapted. In my own experience 

 this year it ripened simultaneously with the Fenton, and had a brighter 

 colour. It is a tall-strawed sort, somewhat long and open in the ear, with a 

 longish grain. In favourable seasons it produces a bright sample, and is well 

 liked by millers. During the past twenty years it has been less grown than 

 formerly, and it has become difficult to get it genuine. With a recurrence of 

 unfavourable seasons it invariably comes to the front again. 



My patch of bare fallow was manured with farmyard-dung in July, and got 

 a seed-furrow immediately before sowing. The other land had been well- 

 manured for swedes with about 15 cart-loads per acre of dung, 2 cwt. each of 

 bone-meal and bone-ash superphosphate, and 1 cwt. of Peruvian guano. The 

 land was steam-ploughed in February and the wheat was sown broadcast by 

 machine from day to day as the ploughing proceeded, at the rate of very nearly 

 3 bushels per acre, and haiTOwed in. It got no after-treatment save a single- 

 turn of the harrows and rolling in April, when the clover and grass seeds were- 

 sown. 



My wheat was all reaped in the first week of September, the autumn and 

 spring sowings having ripened simultaneously. Although harvest work was 

 often interrupted by rain, the drought was so good that the harvest, as a whole, 

 was a short one, and the crops were secured with slight damage save the loss 

 of colour. The 10-acre piece of Fenton wheat, partly sown in autumn and 

 partly in spring, has yielded exactly 30 bushels i^er acre, weighing 63 lbs. per 

 bushel. The red wheat is the same weight per bushel, but a better sample, 

 with the promise of a better yield by from 4 to 6 bushels per acre. 



Owing to the character of the seasons and the comparatively good price of 

 barley, there has of recent years been less wheat sown on the best class o\ 

 turnip-soils in Berwickshire than iised to be the case. On such soils our expe- 

 rience is that November sowings of wheat prosper best. Forty years ago a 

 shrewd old ploughman used often to say to me, " Our wheat does best, Sir, 

 when the braird's nae langer than elshin-irons afore winter" — elshin being the 

 Scotch name for the shoemaker's awl. My own experience since has quite 

 confirmed the accuracy of old John's observation, 



John Wilson. 



23. Balltdotle, Mallow, Co, Cork. 



(500 statute acres, of which 10 are in Permanent Pasture.) 



The Soil is a calcareous loam, and lies about 200 feet above the sea-level. 

 One portion of the farm is worked on the five-course shift, the remainder is left 

 under grass for eight or ten years before being brought under the plough, when 

 it is cropped first with oats, then green crops, and again laid down with wheat. 

 The breadth under wheat is generally about 40 acres, which formerly was all 



