466 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



below ; and this is the case when it succeeds suca plants as 

 madder or tobacco, or especially where the soil has been deeply 

 and thoroughly trenched. 



Wetness is peculiarly unfriendly to wheat. Surface water, 

 that remains long upon the land, or wetness, which stagnates 

 and remains long in the soil, is highly prejudicial to wheat. 

 This gives the great value to the Deansten system of draining 

 and subsoil-ploughing. The water which falls in such case 

 soaks immediately into the ground and is carried off. Where 

 there is no subsoil-ploughing, and where the soil is of a retentive 

 nature, the laying up the soil in narrow, slightly-rounded beds 

 or stitches, so that the water may pass off at once by the inter 

 vals, is highly important. 



Wheat land cannot be too clean, or be kept too clean from 

 weeds ; and for this reason it should follow a crop which has 

 been kept thoroughly weeded. The small kinds of clover may 

 be advantageously sown with or upon wheat in the spring. 

 This will not impede the growth of the wheat; it in some 

 measure serves to keep down weeds ; it protects the ground, in 

 hot climates, from the great power of the sun, after the wheat 

 has been cut ; it furnishes some food for stock after the wheat 

 has been harvested ; and it enriches the land greatly, when it 

 comes to be ploughed in. 



Wheat should be sown in drills four to six inches apart, or 

 better dibbled, or sown in hills, which is not an excessive labor, 

 where it is done by skilful and experienced hands. In any 

 event, whether sown broadcast or in drills, it should be culti 

 vated, and the ground carefully stirred by the harrow or the 

 scarifier. 



Early sowing is strongly recommended in warm climates, so 

 that the crop may come off before the extreme heats of summer ; 

 but it is advised, in cold climates, to sow wheat quite late, that 

 it may not make any, or but slight progress, so as to be exposed 

 to the severe frosts of winter, but be ready to show itself with 

 the earliest spring. The climate of Great Britain is deemed 

 peculiarly favorable to wheat, because of its equable temperature 

 and its humidity. The plant grows a longer time, and is 

 longer in maturing itself. The harvest in England and Scotland 

 comes off, ordinarily, a month later than in the United States, 

 where the extreme heat of summer often renders the plant 



