206 , REPORT—1857. 
growth in a foreign soil, as I observed when in America most of the natural- 
ized British plants had, to say the least, a different expression from the same 
grown at home. 
2. Cerra Grasses—Corn Crops.—The experiments in this list to 
which I would direct attention are as under :— 
Plots. 
a. Peruvian Barley succeeding Swede Turnips—manured 
with different manures .« . 6 . «© s + « « G 
6. Sowing of wheat at different depths . . . . .. @ 
ec. Transmutation of,oats «. 6 «6 606) 8) 6 oe welt) deg 
d. Experiments with Aegilops . . » . »+ « « « » 8 
a. The Peruvian Barley was sown on account of the interest of this variety, 
and also to occupy six large plots which were last year planted with Swede 
Turnips: five plots with different manures, and one without manure for 
comparison. The whole of the Turnip experiments, when complete, will 
form a substantive report, I hope, next year. It may be enough here to 
state that the result in the Turnips was widely different, but I could trace 
no difference in the Barley, 
b. For two autumns past I have sown wheat at different depths, from one 
to seven inches. My crop of 1856 came up tolerably regular, and that from 
two to four inches in depth was certainly the best, the deeper sown being 
thin, and tillering but indifferently: this year, however, the deeper sown is 
very thin, and consequently with fine large ears, whilst that at less depth 
is still more irregular and weaker, probably arising from injury caused by 
wire worms. ‘These experiments will be again repeated, and they are now 
only noted, not to show any conclusions that have been arrived at, but to 
point out how unsafe it is in agricultural experiments to generalize from a 
single set of experiments, as these are so liable to be interfered with by in- 
sects, climate, and a variety of causes. 
ec. When last year I had the pleasure of laying my notes upon these 
experimental plots before the Section of the British Association, the early 
period at which we met and the general lateness of the season prevented my 
being enabled to report upon some experiments in oat transmutation which 
the ripening of my crops subsequently showed to be of great interest ; and 
as the interest consists in the fact that the dvena fatua has been made to 
assume the forms of different varieties of cereal or cultivated oats, I shall now 
detail the steps taken in bringing about this change*. - 
It is now six years since on a neighbouring farm, in a patch of seeding man- 
gold wurtzels grown on forest marble, I observed an abundance of dvena 
fatua; and as this wild grass is a great pest, especially in clay districts, such as 
those on the Lias of the Vale of Gloucester and the Oxford Clay in Wilts, but 
comparatively rare on the Oolite brashes, I took a class of students to exa- 
mine it and gather specimens for the Herbarium, at the same time giving 
them a ficld lecture upon this pest, in which I adverted to a tradition among 
the farmers of the Vale of Gloucester, that “ they were prevented from grow- 
ing oats because they degenerated into wild oats;” and it was with a view 
of determining if possible from experiment whether this notion was correct, 
that I afterwards gathered some of the ripe seed of the wild oat, which in the 
following spring I sowed in one of my plots. It came up very well, and the 
process was repeated the following season in another part of the garden, and 
in the autumn of 1855 I thought I remarked the following changes :— 
1. A lighter-coloured fruit. 
* Specimens of these changes accompanied the Report. 
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