452 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



give the opinions of the best farmers in one of the best cultivated 

 districts in France. Where tobacco has grown, wheat succeeds 

 to great advantage. The cultivation for tobacco is clean and 

 careful, and the manuring abundant. Wheat follows hemp with 

 equal success, because the cultivation of hemp is equally clean 

 with that of tobacco, and it is even more strongly manured ; but 

 the straw of wheat which follows hemp is not so abundant as 

 after tobacco. Wheat after cabbage yields less straw than after 

 some other crops, but more grain.* Beans are by some farmers 

 regarded as a crop propitious to wheat, but not so favorable as 

 those crops to which I have referred ; and by others it is believed 

 to produce less grain, and that of an inferior quality. After 

 Indian corn, the wheat gives a good grain, but an inferior amount 

 of straw ; but in some localities it is represented as giving an 

 equally good product in grain and straw. After lucern, wheat is 

 cultivated to great advantage ; the lucern strikes a deep tap-root, 

 which greatly enriches the ground when it is turned in. Wheat 

 succeeds well after clover, if the clover is good ; if the clover is 

 poor, the crop of wheat is likely to be inferior, which is in other 

 words only saying, if the land is rich, the crop will be good if 

 in poor condition, the result will correspond. Potatoes are gen 

 erally condemned as a crop to precede wheat. In parts of 

 France where wheat is grown every second year, potatoes are 

 frequently the intermediate crop ; and then the wheat, as well 

 as the potatoes, are manured. After turnips, wheat is stated to 

 be richer in straw than in grain. The rotation differs in many 

 places, sometimes wheat occurring every other year, and some 

 times only twice in six years. 



I cannot look upon these various statements with all the con 

 fidence which some persons place in them. A presumption is 

 always in favor of the general and long-continued practice of 

 any country ; yet it is far from being an infallible test of what 

 is good or best, because it is by no means certain to be the result 

 of experiments carefully made, and as carefully noted. Two or 

 three great points, however, seem to be fully settled ; that the 

 land for wheat cannot be too deeply cultivated, nor too 



* &quot; It is calculated that 120 sheaves of wheat grown after cabbages, will 

 give more grain than 150 sheaves grown after tobacco.&quot; Scherwz, Culture 



