Cultivation of Aralh Land. Wheat Infefts, DeftruRhe of. &5 



have been frequently obferved to occur in the feeding down of wheat crops by 

 means of fhecp.* The lame philofophical writer alfo fuggefts that, in refpedl 

 to the culture of wheat crops, the moft beneficial method is that of promoting as 

 much as poflible the time of bloflbming, while that of ripening is protradtcd,t 

 as it is for the farinaceous refcrvoir of nutriment depofited in the cotyledon of 

 the new feed, in order to fupport the growth of the corculum or frefh embryon, 

 that the plant is cultivated ; which farinaceous depofition is effected in the in 

 terval between the bloflbming and ripening of the corn, either before the im 

 pregnation of the pericarp or feed-veffels, or afterwards ; and the weight and 

 plumpnefs of the grain is thus augmented. 



The eating down of crops by fheep may therefore often be hurtful, by retard 

 ing the period of bloffoming, as well as by reftricting the growth of the flems.j 



But befides the advantage derived from the feeding down of wheat crops 

 with fheep, they may fometimes be employed with benefit in other views ; for 

 as the coronal parts of the roots of fuch crops are liable to be laid bare and 

 expofed for fome inches in length, about the furface of the earth, during fevere 

 f roily winters, the turning in of fheep upon them in fuch circumflances, when 

 the ground is moift, and keeping them, in motion, may tend to prefs them into 

 th.e loofe foil, and in that way produce new roots, as well as afford covering 

 and protection to fuch as have been denudated, 



It is likewife a practice with fome farmers, who contend that much advan 

 tage is derived from it, to turn meep upon the crops where danger is appre 

 hended from worms, flugs, or other infects ; in order that, by keeping them con- 

 ftantly in motion, fuch animals may either be wholly deftroyed, or fo fixed in 

 the furface mould as tocaufe their more gradual death. 



There are many infects that are highly injurious to wheat crops in mild and 

 open winters, as well as during the fpring, and fometimes in the early fummer 

 months, by eating off and destroying the ftems at the joints about the furface of 

 the earth, which are in fuch parts fweet and tender, from their containing a por 

 tion of faccharine matter, and being of young growth. In thefe cafes the blades 

 of the wheat plants drop down and become withered, by which the crops are 

 frequently in a great meafure deftroyed. 



The principal of thefe deftructive animals does not yet feem to have been de- 



* Tull s Horfe-hoeing Husbandry, 4to. edit. + Ibid. p. 147. J Darwin s Phytologia, p. 14*. 



Corrected Rep &amp;gt;rt of Middlefcx. 

 VOL. II. E 



