242 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



Guano was not known as a manure in the time of Mr. Coke, but 

 is now applied, properly mixed, by many farmers, with great 

 advantage. The manure, however, which comes from animals 

 folded on the land and fed liberally with linseed oil cake, is, 

 beyond question, one of the most safe, one of the most enrich 

 ing, and one of the most permanent in its beneficial effects, which 

 can be applied. I believe the soil for wheat cannot be too deep : 

 though, as I have already stated, it may be too loose at the top, 

 and, iu such cases, requires shallow ploughing and treading, or 

 pressing on very light soils, in order that the roots may be firmly 

 fixed in the soil, and the dirt not liable to be blown away from 

 them. In Lord Leicester s cultivation, the seed was always 

 drilled, and the crop most carefully horse-hoed, in which operation 

 the dirt was thrown towards the plants. In the third place, the 

 land was thoroughly cleaned of weeds. A gentleman, who 

 visited the estate during the life of the former proprietor, states 

 that in travelling over, and observing most carefully, a field of 

 wheat of seventy acres, he discovered but one single weed, and 

 that of charlock, which one of the workmen pulled up with a 

 good deal of indignation. I will add only that success is always 

 uncertain unless the land be thoroughly drained. Standing 

 water upon the soil, or in the soil, is always prejudicial, and often 

 fatal, to the crop. With respect to other matters connected with 

 this cultivation, I have treated them so fully that I may leave 

 it to my intelligent readers to form their own conclusions. 



I believe that the average crop of wheat here may be fully 

 doubled. I shall quote, rather as a curiosity, the following state 

 ment, which has been furnished me. A cultivator, in the end 

 of August, 1843, planted in his garden thirty-two grains of wheat, 

 of the very best quality, at six inches apart, and at the depth of 

 an inch and a half. In 1844, this seed produced thirty-two 

 plants, having from ten to twenty-eight stems and ears each ; the 

 average number of ears was sixteen ; the average weight of each 

 plant was one and three quarters of an ounce. An acre of land 

 would contain, at six inches distance, 174,240 plants ; the prod 

 uce, 304,920 ozs., or 19,000 Ibs., or about 320 bushels, per acre. 

 When a farm can be subjected to a most careful garden cultiva 

 tion, though the expectation of any approach, upon any extensive 

 scale, to a crop even of one third of this amount, would be 



