Early Cutting of IVJieaf. 153 



our own, and may be summed up in the concluding words 

 . of their Report : " We find considerable advantages in 

 it; we avoid loss by the shedding (or shelling out) of the 

 ^rain ; we obtain a better price for it at market ; we prefer it 

 tor seed ; it gives us a loaf of a finer and better quality ; the 

 straw is finer, more nutritive for cattle, tougher for bands, and 

 makes a more durable and rich manure." " Wheat perfectly 

 ripe requires but a slight degree of heat and moisture to make 

 it vegetate" [in the harvest field]; "but, on the contrary, cut 

 early, say twelve days before the usual period, the bands being 

 still green, and the sheaves arranged in the manner we have 

 described," [i.e. by hooding or capping) "it is protected from 

 many evils to which it would otherwise be liable." 



One observation occurs here, and it is a part of the subject 

 wholly overlooked by our French neighbours. If early cut- 

 ting has its advantages, it has also its disadvantages. It is well 

 known that wheat dead ripe may be cut and carried, as they 

 term it in Norfolk ; that is (except there be weeds amongst it), 

 it requires not to remain in the field, but may be carted imme- 

 diately after cutting. On the contrary, early cut wheat must 

 necessarily remain from a week to a fortnight before the straw 

 and corn are forward enough to secure it either in the stack or 

 barn. Consequently ; the one incurs a risk which the other 

 needs not incur. It is however admitted, that if the method 

 of liooding the sheaves be adopted, that risk, even in bad 

 weather, will be considerably diminished. Some very sensi- 

 ble remarks on this operation occur in the Report; and it 

 would be well if some of our English farmers would adopt the 

 method. We say some, because all those in the moister di- 

 stricts do adopt it* Those who live in the drier atmospheres of 

 Norfolk, Suffolk, &c. have comparatively so little rain at the 

 period of harvest, that they regard it altogether as a waste of 

 time and labom', and wholly unnecessary : therefore, when a 

 wet harvest does occur, they are utterly unprepared for it, and 

 of course more injury is done to the corn in these districts 

 than (with the same degree of wet) elsewhere. Besides, the be- 

 nefits of hooding are not confined to a rainy season, they are 

 equally apparent in weather ever so hot and dry. By being 

 alternately exposed to the rays of a scorching sun by day, 

 heavy dews by night, and perhaps occasional showers, the skin 

 of the grain acquires a degree of coarseness and roughness 

 which tend to deprive it of its weight ; whereas, if covered by 

 hooding nothing of this kind occurs, and (on die average) a 

 l)etter sample is produced. There is in short nearly as much 

 difference in the sample, between wheat liooded and not hood- 



Vol. 60. No. 292. Aug. 1822. U ed. 



