WHAltF. 



Will 



- 



It U generally polished by being scraped with a iitcel edge 



or * piece of glass, nibbed with emery-paper, and finally nibbed 

 with a woollen doth dipped in tripoli jn.w.lrr ; or by a jHilishing-whoel, 

 as in the OMB of bom or tortolseshell. 



Common horn, if steeped for several day* in a solution of p. 

 and thru in .t liquid containing several ingredient*, acquire* properties 

 In. h enable it to be n.-iil fur some purpose* a* a cheap substitute for 

 whalebone. 



WHARF, a place constructed or set apart for the loading and 

 unloading of goods. In this sense the word include* the quay* of all 

 sea-ports at which goods are required to be shipped or landed. The 

 aea-beach, or natural ground on the banks of a river or canal, is not a 

 wharf. Wharfs in docks and similar Hituations are made legal by 

 special acts of parliament, as the London Docks, Ac. ; and there are 

 some places which are deemed wharf* from immemorial usage, as at 

 Chepstow. For the u*e of n wharf certain rates of compensation are 

 usually charged, which are called wharfage ; and the act 22 Car. II., 

 c. 11, allows any one to load or unload goods on paying wharfage at the 

 rates appointed. The wharfs of the port of London were established 

 in 1558, in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

 nftrancr vkarfi have been since added to thene, under the authority 

 of the CommiiMioner* of Customs, and other sufferance wharf* are occa- 

 sionally authorised for the landing and keeping of goods by the 

 Custom-House till the duties are paid or the goods bonded. 



No goods except diamonds and bullion, fresh fish of British taking, 

 and turbots and lobsters fresh, however taken or imported, are allowed 

 to be unshipped from any ship arriving from foreign parts beyond seas, 

 or landed or put on shore, except at legal quay* appointed by her 

 Majesty for landing of good*, or at some wharf appointed by the Com- 

 missioners of Customs. Good* entitled to drawback or bounty are 

 only to be shipped in Groat Britain by wharfinger* appointed by the 

 Commissioner* of Customs. 



WHEAT. The botanical characters of wheat will be found under 

 the word Tumi-UK, in NAT. HIST. lliv. Some botanists have divMc.1 

 wheats into different species, from some marked peculiarity in their 

 formation. Others, considering that they mostly form hybrids when 

 mixed in the sowing, and that their peculiarities vary with the soil and 

 climate, have looked upon all the cultivated wheats as mere varieties. 

 There are, however, three principal varieties, so different in appearance 

 that they claim peculiar attention. These are the hard wheat*, the 

 soft wheat*, nnd the Polish wheats. The hard wheat* are the produce 

 of warm climates, such as Italy, Sicily, and Barbary. The soft w hr.it < 

 grow in the northern parts of Europe, as in Belgium, England, I >.-n- 

 inark, and Sweden. The Polish wheats grow in the country fruin 

 which they derive their name, and are also hard wheats. It is from 

 their external form that they are distinguished from other wheats. 

 The hard wheats have a compact seed nearly transparent, which, v. li.-n 

 bitten through, breaks short, and shows a very white flour within. 

 The soft wheats are those usually cultivated in Britain : they have an 

 opaque coat or akin, which, when first reaped, gives way readily to the 

 pressure of the finger and thumb. These wheats require to be well 

 dri'il and hardened before they can be conveniently ground into flour. 

 The Polish wheat has a long chaff which is much longer than the seed, 

 a large oblong hard seed, and an ear cylindrical in appearance. It is a 

 delicate spring wheat, and not very productive in the climate of 

 England : hence it has only been occasionally cultivated by way of 

 experiment. 



The following cut* represent some peculiar varieties of wheat. The 

 first is a compound ear, common in Kgypt. The second i* the spelter 

 wheat, of which the chaff is so strongly attached to the grain a* to be 

 separated only by passing through a mill. It i* an inferior variety, 

 but grows in less fertile soils. The third is the Polish wheat, with 

 very long chaff and bard grains. The fourth i* a variety which only 

 ripens one seed in each spikelet, and is not much cultivated. The fifth 

 is common soft bearded wheat. If the awns of this kind are oblite- 

 rated, it forms our common soft wheat The circumstance of awns 

 seems not to affect the nature of the wheat, and they differ so much in 

 length that the varieties of smooth-eared and bearded wheat* run 

 insensibly into each other. 



The distinction between the winter and summer wheats is one which 

 arise* entirely from the season in wbicli they have been usually sown ; 

 for they can readily be converted into each other by sowing earlier or 

 later, and gradually accelerating or retarding their growths. The 

 original difference in colour between red and white wheats is owing 

 chiefly to the soil : white wheats gradually become darker and ulti- 

 mately red in some stiff wet soils, and the red wheats lose their colour 

 and become first yellow and then white on rich, light, and mellow 

 soil*. It is remarkable that the gram sooner changes colour than the 

 chaff and straw. Hence we have red wheats with white chaff, and 

 white wheats with red chaff, which on the foregoing principle in readily 

 accounted for. The chaff retains the original colour when the skin of 

 the grain has already changed to another. We state this on our own 

 experience. The soil beet adapted to the growth of wheat is a deep 

 loam inclined to clay, with a dry subsoil. If this is not dry naturally, 

 it must be drained artificially, to ensure good crops of wheat. In such 

 a soil wheat may be sown every third year, with proper intermediate 

 crop*. Formerly the preparation for a wheat crop was generally by a 

 clean naked fallow, with a certain addition of manure, the remains of 



which were thought sufficient for n crop of barley or oats, after nliieh 

 the fallow recurred. It was noon found out that by this mean*- 



1. Egyptian Whet (Tritictim FpTptiacum) ; 5, Spelter Wheat (Tiiiirmn 

 Spclta) ; S, Long-chaffed MM Wheat (Tritlcum I'olonlcum); 4, 81 

 grained Wheat (Triticum monococcum) ; 5, Common Bearded Wheat 

 (Triticum turgldnm). 



of wheat could never IMS forced beyond a certain average ; for if more 

 than the uxual portion of manure was carried on the land the wheat 

 failed, by being laid before it arrived at maturity. Thus a limit 

 appeared to have been set to it* increase. New modes of cult i 

 have shown that this was not without its remedy, and that it waa 

 recent manuring which caused the wheat to lodge : but that an in- 

 creased fertility, ]>ro<luced by judicious preparation, enabled the land 

 to bear crop* of wheat far superior to what it ever could before. 

 Wheat requires a soil in which the organic matter i* intimately mixed 



