Varieties of Cereals. 157 



the average, so that more than once I was tempted to 

 say to them : " You must have your grumble, but no 

 amount of wet can do the harm a month's drought will 

 do; so you may be thankful for the rain 'twas a 

 blessing in disguise." Yes, the wheat stalks are built 

 on the very principle that some of the strongest of 

 animal bones are built, and witness to the same prin- 

 ciple in constructing for strength and resistance. 



Never before did I observe, as I now did, the great 

 varieties of every form of cereal. To most people not 

 farmers, as I confess it had hitherto done to me, every 

 field of wheat, or of oats, or of barley looked exactly 

 alike. But it is far from being so. Some cereals are 

 short strawed, some long, some more slender, some 

 rounder and more robust, and to such an extent as 

 makes a great difference to the feeling of the scythe- 

 man when he comes to cut it. Some produce an ear 

 longer and more tapered, some rounder, fuller, and less 

 refined to the eye; the grain of some is long, some 

 round, and, to the experienced eye, a very little atten- 

 tion will tell of what particular variety of grain the 

 field is. Some wheats have the seeds standing more 

 straight out from the stem ; others more slanting up- 

 wards, and very closely packed together; and I am 

 told that these latter are powerful against lodging rain, 

 and are not nearly so likely to sprout. Some are by 

 their very type large, some small ; and it does not 

 always follow that the farmer should be guided by 

 what would be expected to produce the heaviest head. 

 He must have regard to many things the quality 

 of the soil, the amount of average rain-fall, and many 

 other things. What will do well and yield abund- 

 antly in some soils and situations will do but poorly 

 in others. 



