216 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



have been publicly reported, it is exceedingly difficult to arrive 

 at any satisfactory conclusion. A very eminent Scotch farmer, 

 of large experience, says that, &quot;in some seasons, a moderately 

 thin plant that is to say, a small number of the young plants 

 of wheat standing upon a given space of ground is found to 

 be advantageous both to quantity and quality of grain, and in 

 others highly injurious.&quot; 



Mr. Davis, of Croydon, to whom I have before referred, claims, 

 from a sowing of three pecks to the acre, to produce an average 

 crop of forty bushels to the acre. The last season, on visiting his 

 farm, though the straw was of a very large size, and the heads long 

 and full, it seemed to me impossible that it should have pro 

 duced even thirty bushels per acre ; and much of it was certainly 

 extremely foul with weeds. I regret that, though I have at 

 tempted, I have been unable to ascertain the actual yield ; and I 

 am quite ready to admit that one is very liable to err in judgment 

 upon such a crop, not making proper allowance for the length 

 of the heads, which was quite remarkable. 



The experiments of Mr. Barclay, M. P., given in the 6th volume 

 of the Journal of the Agricultural Society, seem to go strongly 

 against the thin sowing of wheat. 



2J bushels of seed drilled, 9 in. apart, gave 37 bushels per acre. 



i a a n a ^^ ii &quot; u 25 ii &quot; u 



1 &quot; &amp;lt; : dibbled, 12 &quot; &quot; &quot; 31 &quot; &quot; 



jr a a a a Q ft a 37 &amp;lt; 



2J &quot; &quot; sown broadcast, . . &quot; 40 &quot; &quot; &quot; 



The value of the grain, as estimated by the miller, was 3 d. 

 more per bushel, in the first and last case, than in the others, and 

 the straw, in the last case, was considerably more, in quantity and 

 value, than in either of the former. 



In an experiment which I myself saw upon a very small 

 scale, wheat, dibbled at the rate of six quarts to the acre, pro 

 duced at the rate of seventy bushels to the acre. 



In some experiments reported by W. Miles, Esq., M. P., made 

 at his beautiful farm at King s Western, near Bristol, the yield of 

 the drilled wheats, at two bushels, and one bushel three pecks, 

 per acre, was very much superior to those dibbled at two pecks 

 and one quart per acre. 



