CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



flowers. Dry and cold weather, conjoined with a 

 short allowance of manure, have a great influence 

 in hastening the seeding of plants. 



The principle of a higher temperature delaying 

 the period of flowering in plants, is strikingly 

 exhibited in the case of our cereals, inasmuch as 

 wheat, barley, oats, and rye have no tendency to 

 seed when sown in summer in southern latitudes. 



Potatoes now form a more important crop on 

 almost all arable farms, than they did twenty-five 

 years ago. The immense increase of population 

 in London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow, 

 and generally in all manufacturing towns, has 

 created an extensive market for this vegetable, 

 while the development of the railway system has 

 facilitated their cheap and rapid carriage. It is 

 not too much to say that the present rents of 

 farms in the Lothians of Scotland could not be 

 paid unless from the profits of potato-growing. In 

 years when the crop is unusually plentiful, and 

 consequently cheap, the roots are found to be 

 extremely useful in cattle-feeding, though preju- 

 dicial to sheep unless sent quickly to the butcher. 

 Experienced feeders of cattle consider them worth 

 from thirty shillings to forty shillings per ton. 

 The usual period of planting in the British Isles is 

 from the first of March to the middle of May, but 

 the earlier the better ; while the harvesting of the 

 late varieties begins in October, and is seldom 

 finished until the close of November. It is cus- 

 tomary to plant eyesets, or cut pieces of potato, 

 each having an eye or point of germination. Small 

 potatoes, with some of the eyes destroyed, are 

 approved of by many English growers ; and in 

 dry seasons they certainly afford greater security 

 against blanks than cut sets, but the latter gener- 

 ally produce a larger proportion of full-sized 

 marketable potatoes. The quantity of seed re- 

 quired is about half a ton per acre ; kidneys or 

 varieties planted whole require more. The sets 

 are planted at a distance of 12 inches apart in 

 drill-furrows made by the double-mould-board 

 plough 28 inches wide. A heavy dressing of farm- 

 yard manure is sometimes applied to the land in 

 the autumn, but in general is spread in the fur- 

 rows previous to planting, and supplemented with 

 guano or artificial manures ; no crop repaying so 

 well for abundance of manure. Indeed, potatoes 

 cannot be grown profitably unless highly manured. 

 Potatoes usually take the place of beans in the six- 

 course shift ; but profitable crops are frequently 

 obtained after two or three years' lea, particularly 

 where stock have eaten large quantities of linseed- 

 cake. Of course a proportion of light manures is 

 applied. The lea should be turned over to the 

 depth of 12 inches at least, which is done by a 

 furrow turning over the sod, a plough with three 

 horses following covering it up. Where the turnip- 

 crop has been consumed on the ground by sheep, 

 which have had at some time an allowance of 

 linseed -cake, potatoes may also be taken with 

 advantage by the aid of light manures alone. 

 The wheat-crop succeeding the potatoes is invari- 

 ably fine, and the clover-grass thereafter is invari- 

 ably superior ; in fact, there is no better plan for 

 at once making land rich and clean. After the 

 plants appear above ground, they are as frequently 

 grubbed and hand-hoed as may be required to 

 keep the ground loose and free from weeds, and 

 finally earthed up with a double-mould-board 

 plough, to cover all the tubers, and prevent them 



628 



becoming green. Being very susceptible of frosts, 

 potatoes must be stored carefully in narrow pits 

 covered with straw and earth. Large pits must be 

 avoided, as early in the season the roots are apt 

 to heat, particularly when dry and free from earth, 

 and at no time should the pits be wholly covered 

 with earth for at least a fortnight 



White Crops. 



Wheat is the most important of all the cereals, 

 and we believe it grows over a wider range of 

 latitude than any other plant. In Egypt, it is 

 raised under the Tropic of Cancer, and on the 

 continent of Europe as high as the 6oth parallel. 

 It is right to observe, however, that this extreme 

 range is obtained by its growing in the one 

 country in summer, and in the other in winter. 

 Indeed, it is not a plant that requires a high mean 

 temperature before it puts forth its ears ; it even 

 exhibits little tendency to produce seeds if sown 

 during the heats of summer in France or America. 



In Britain, a great number of varieties of wheat 

 are cultivated. Spalding, Kessingland, Lammas,. 

 Browick, red wheats, are great favourites in the 

 dry climate of England, as they yield more grain 

 than any of the white varieties. The farmers 

 consider that they are usually as well paid by 

 the larger quantity of grain, though the quality 

 is inferior. Velvet or woolly-eared Hopetoun, 

 Hunter, red chaff white, red strawed white, and 

 Fenton, are common varieties in all parts of 

 Britain. April or awny wheat is sown on some 

 inferior soils in Scotland, where it is quite as sure 

 a crop as barley, and the straw is as good for 

 fodder. 



From six pecks to two bushels of grain are 

 usually sown by the drill in the south of England. 

 Less than the latter quantity is seldom sown in 

 Scotland ; and when sown on the common furrow, 

 three bushels is the common allowance after 

 green crops. Spring-wheat should be sown rather 

 thicker than autumn, to hasten on the crop to 

 maturity, and to promote a fine sample. 



Wheat is generally sown in the southern and 

 eastern counties of England after clover lea. In 

 all dry climates, the decaying matter which clover- 

 roots afford seems to be best adapted for feeding 

 the wheat-plant during the long time it is in the 

 ground. It ought to be constantly borne in mind 

 that, in manuring a plant, we should be guided 

 by similar principles as in feeding an animal. 

 Theoretically speaking, every one must allow that 

 no more food should be supplied to plants or 

 animals than they are capable of daily digesting 

 or assimilating. Manures, therefore, should be of 

 such a nature as to afford nourishment to plants 

 during their whole period of growth. Plants which 

 do not grow rapidly, should be supplied with 

 manures that slowly yield up their active sub- 

 stances. Autumn-sown wheat, therefore, in dry 

 climates is best manured by a clover sod. 



As a general rule, the growth of autumn wheat 

 is most economically promoted by carbonaceous 

 substances ; such as clover roots, the refuse of the 

 manures which have been applied to green crops, 

 or by rape cakes, and inferior qualities of guano, 

 which only yield up their ammonia during the 

 growth of the crop. 



With spring-sown wheat, a different course must 

 be followed. Its growth being more rapid, the 





