CROPS. 457 



I have spoken of the quantity and the preparation of the seed. 

 It is said by some that shrunken seed, or seed imperfectly ripened, 

 will germinate and serve for another crop as well as that which 

 is perfectly sound. I believe it may be considered as an estab 

 lished axiom, that perfect seed is always to be preferred to that 

 which has any defect. In many&quot; provinces new wheat is always 

 preferred for sowing : but many experienced fanners advise to 

 sow wheat which is a year old, as a security against smut ; for 

 though the crop may have been smutty, from which the seed in 

 such case is taken, the smutted ears are said, in the course of the 

 year, to lose their germinating power, and do not communicate 

 the disease to those grains with which they come in contact. A 

 farmer, however, can hardly excuse himself for neglecting to 

 take the prescribed precautions against smut in the preparation 

 of the seed, which have been usually found effectual; and it is 

 obvious that if old seed is used in preference to new, a larger 

 quantity is required to guard against the failure of such as have 

 become effete. In some provinces, they deem it necessary to 

 change their seed once in two or three years. But the reason 

 given by some persons for this practice is, that the cultivation in 

 these departments is slovenly and negligent, and so the wheat 

 degenerates. I think experiments have fully demonstrated, as 

 applicable to all plants, that where the cultivation is good, and 

 the kind itself good, we have only carefully to select from year 

 to year the very best for seed, and there will be found no neces 

 sity for changing the seed ; and the crop itself will be likely 

 continually to improve. In some cases, and especially where 

 the cold is severe and the winds are strong, it is advised to 

 plough in the seed wheat to the depth of about three inches. 

 The best cultivators advise this always, especially where the 

 lands are light ; but it is a slovenly mode, as practised by some, 

 to sow it upon the stubble of a preceding crop, and merely har 

 row it in. If nothing else, the benefit arising from the decayed 

 stubble or the clover, when turned under as manure, is thus 

 almost wholly lost. Wheat which is to be sown on a clover 

 stubble * is advised to be sown two or three weeks earlier than 



* Wheat manured by turning in a green vegetable crop, is supposed to have 

 less strength, and is therefore more apt to become lodged, than that grown after 

 a crop which has been manured with rich animal manure. The occasion of the 

 VOL. ii. 39 



