74 Lois-Weedon Wheat- Growing 



space witliin the bounds of the field, whether fallow or cropped, 

 being' included in the measurement ; for the next four years 

 (1855-1858), the yield averaged 38|^ bushels per acre ; and in 

 the next four years (1859-1862) the average was 33 bushels per 

 acre. The crop of 1863 gave no less than 40 bushels per acre — 

 the same great yield as in 1855, and again in 1858 ; and the last 

 harvest (1864) has produced 32 bushels per acre, this being the 

 eighteenth wheat-crop in annual succession. The average yield 

 of the last ten years has been 35f bushels per acre, just If 

 bushel in advance of the average for the previous eight years. 

 Mr. Smith reports that in the present month, January, 1865, all 

 is going on well with the triple rows, " never better." 



As to quality, Mr. Smith has usually made the price of the 

 best red-wheat in his market ; and the quality of his latter crops 

 has surpassed that of the earlier. 



The effect on the land after all this annual corn-bearing, is that 

 a good brown heavy loam, to a depth of 1^^ to nearly 2 feet, has 

 taken the place of the 5-inch staple and raw clay subsoil ; so 

 that the field was pronounced by the Deputation from the London 

 Farmers' Club in 1860, to be " as fine wheat-land as any man could 

 possibly desire," and to be " worth 45^. per acre." The owner 

 says it is now worth "at least 60s." So far from "exhaustion" 

 being within view, the ground has become ameliorated and 

 amazingly enhanced in value. 



Mr. Smith's yearly profit upon his outlay has also been large, 

 though he reckons the grain at a low market-price, and sets a 

 very moderate figure upon the straw, which is all carried away 

 and applied as manure to other land. 



With such protracted and astonishing results before their 

 eyes, English agriculturists will surely be unworthy of their 

 reputation if they allow the system to die without a thorough 

 testing, in different districts, and on a broader scale. Not that 

 they should slavishly copy the Lois-Weedon manipulation ; for 

 though the spade and fork have been employed in establishing a 

 principle, the magic power lies in the tillage, not in the tools ; 

 and on the great scale, horse or steam power must perform the 

 labour of cultivation. If Mr. Smith's principle be sound, the 

 farmer has only to modify Mr. Smith's particular practice, 

 adapting it to the means and requirements of ordinary business. 



The jmnciple developed by the Lois-Weedon experiment is, 

 that " intercultural tillage " (that is, the pulverization and aeration 

 of the ground between the rows of a growing crop) promotes the 

 growth of the crop. In this lies the essential difference between 

 bare-fallowing half the area of a field in narrow stripes, dis- 

 tributed at intervals between wheat-bearing stripes, which col- 

 lectively occupy the other half, and bare-fallowing one-half part 



