AGRICULTURE. 



ammonia should be in a form that can be more 

 readily assimilated, and hence Peruvian guano is 

 the best application for this crop. The most 

 soluble manures, on the other hand, such as nitrate 

 of soda, are best fitted for top-dressing wheat in 

 spring, for the rapidity of growth which ensues in 

 early summer enables plants to digest a larger 

 quantity of food in a given time. 



The value of manures is rated by the quantity 

 of ammonia (or nitrogen) which they contain. But 

 so much is this principle held in abeyance to the 

 form in which this element exists in manures, that 

 even before the recent rise in the price of guano, 

 nitrate of soda was largely used for top-dressing 

 wheat, though nitrogen in this form cost the 

 farmer double the price per pound that it did 

 in Peruvian guano. Rapid growth and soluble 

 manures must go together. 



In all hot countries, the common varieties of 

 wheat can only be sown with advantage in winter ; j 

 even in the eastern counties of England, where 

 the range of the thermometer is considerable in 

 May, these varieties do not succeed so well when j 

 sown in spring as they do in Scotland and the 

 western counties of England. 



From the circumstance of the growth of wheat 

 being extended over a longer period than any of 

 the other cereals, and of its growing in a colder 

 season, it must be more liberally manured with 

 substances which slowly yield up the nitrogen 

 they contain. For this reason, it has always been 

 regarded as a very exhausting crop, requiring 

 more manure than any other. But owing to the 

 fact of the soil requiring to be dressed with sub- 

 stances that only slowly yield up their active 

 principles to the crops, the soil cannot be 

 exhausted by crops of wheat to the same degree 

 as by crops of inferior grains, which require less 

 manure, but which leave less in the soil, and thus 

 really exhaust it more. Turnips grown by market- 

 gardeners require a great deal of manure, and are 

 justly regarded as exhausting crops ; but from the 

 large residue of manure left in the soil in the mere 

 forcing of these crops, the land is still left in a 

 richer state than when crops of turnips are grown 

 by superphosphate of lime. Instead of proprietors 

 of land restricting the quantity of wheat on their 

 farms, they would do well to encourage its exten- 

 sion, seeing the growing of wheat is actually a test 

 of the good condition of the soil. < 



Wheat is liable to certain fungous diseases, as, 

 for example, smut, mildew, and rust. The last 

 two it is not so much in the power of the farmer 

 to prevent as the first ; they are more common in 

 England than in Scotland. Early or thick sowing 

 tends to impart conditions which are unfavourable 

 to the appearance of these diseases. Smut is best 

 prevented by watering the wheat with a solution 

 of sulphate of copper one pound of this substance 

 being sufficient for half a quarter of wheat ; it 

 should be dissolved in as much water as will 

 thoroughly wet the grain, which, as soon as dry, 

 may be sown. 



Rye is usually grown on light sandy soils, and 

 requires less care than wheat. It is frequently 

 sown along with winter tares in England to be cut 

 for soiling, and when sown on the wheat stubble, 

 is extremely useful as food for breeding flocks in 

 spring, as it comes forward earlier than tares, and 

 affords good pasture when other substances are 

 scarce. 

 34 



Barley. There are several varieties of this 

 grain cultivated in Britain : the early English, 

 Annat, Stirlingshire, chevalier, and here, are the 

 most common. This grain grows best upon a 

 rich mellow loam, moderately retentive, where the 

 culture has been careful. It rarely succeeds where 

 the soil is stiff" and wet. On the heavy clay-soils 

 Of Essex and Suffolk, excellent crops of barley are 

 got after summer fallow. The ground being 

 ploughed up in autumn, the mould which is pul- 

 verised by the frosts affords a fine seed-bed. The 

 surface is usually scarified before the seed is 

 sown by drill. An intelligent agriculturist, who 

 farms heavy clay-soils in Suffolk, writes : ' When 

 new year has commenced, the Suffolk plan is 

 never to let a favourable opportunity escape for 

 drilling barley, if the land is prepared.' When 

 land is in good condition, early sowing is to be 

 preferred, as heavier crops and finer quality are 

 thus obtained. 



On the light soils of the southern counties of 

 England, barley is usually sown after the turnip- 

 crop, which is generally eaten on the ground by 

 sheep. After the land has been trodden, it must 

 be carefully prepared by two or more ploughings, 

 rollings, and harrowings, to pulverise it, and 

 render it more retentive of moisture. In the dry 

 climate of Norfolk, the farmers expend a great 

 deal more labour in preparing the land after 

 turnips, than they do in the moister climate of 

 Scotland, where turnip-land is rarely ploughed 

 more than once. Owing, also, to the greater heats 

 and droughts in the south of England, good 

 quality of barley is rarely got when sown after the 

 middle of April. 



It is much easier to over-manure barley in moist 

 climates than wheat ; hence the latter is more 

 frequently sown in the western counties after 

 turnips eaten on the land by sheep. Much land 

 is well adapted for the growth of the finest quality 

 of barley along the east coast of Scotland. Barley 

 is now sown in Scotland as soon as the land is in 

 a fit state to receive the seed. On rich and dry 

 soils, barley is rarely injured by spring frosts ; it 

 is only on weak soils, or such as are out of condi- 

 tion, that complaints of this nature are heard of. 



On many of the trap-loams in Scotland, barley 

 is sown after wheat ; in this case, it is generally 

 sown late, as the more genial temperature acts as 

 a compensation for a richer soil. This is in 

 accordance with the principles enunciated under 

 the head of the Meteorology of Agriculture. Early- 

 sown barley is best manured by Peruvian guano, 

 as plants growing in the colder season demand a 

 more liberal supply of food. If barley is sown in 

 May, less ammonia should be applied, as at that 

 season the crop can rely to a greater extent upon 

 the atmosphere, if it obtain a ready supply of 

 phosphoric acid. Thus superphosphate of lime is 

 generally of little use when applied to barley sown 

 in March, but has often good effects when sown 

 in the end of April or May. 



The six-rowed variety of barley, called bere t is 

 now chiefly confined to the northern counties of 

 Scotland. It is the most hardy of all the kinds of 

 barley, and being stiffer in the straw, it is not 

 easily laid by rains or over-luxuriance. 



Oats. Of this grain there are many varieties, 

 which our space prevents us from particularising. 

 The potato-oat is an early and productive variety 

 on low and rich lands ; indeed, it has gradually 



in 



