750 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



whole surface becomes a kind of mortar or paste, unless previously well ridged up; 

 which, to a certain extent, prevents the consequences from being dangerous. These 

 evils, however, must be submitted to by the possessors of such soils, if they want to have 

 them sufficiently fallowed and prepared in a proper manner ; for, without reducing 

 them, couch-grass, and especially moss, with which they are commonly stored, can- 

 not be eradicated. If they are reduced in the early part of the season, the danger is 

 small ; but to break them down in the latter part ought always to be avoided, unless called 

 for by imperious necessity. 



4617. When wheat is sbwn after beans, it rarely happens, in this northern climate, that 

 more than one ploughing can successfully be bestowed. Before this is given, it is ad- 

 vantageous to cross-harrow the land, which levels the drills, and permits the ploughing 

 process to be executed with precision. Almost in every case, the ridges should be ga- 

 thered up, so that the furrows may be well cleared out, and the plants preserved from 

 injury during the inclement winter season. Clover land should be neatly ploughed, 

 and well laid over, so that the roots of the grasses may be buried and destroyed ; for it 

 frequently happens, that crops of wheat after clover and rye-grass, are greatly injured 

 by inattention to the ploughing process. In short, sowing wheat after clover may be 

 qpnsidered as the most hazardous way in which that grain can be cultivated. (Urowns 

 Tr. on Rural Affairs.) 



4618. The manures best calculated for wheat, are allowed by all agricultural chemists 

 to be animal matters and lime. The former has a direct influence in supplying that essen- 

 tial constituent to wheaten flour, gluten ; and the latter azote and lime, both actually found 

 in the straw of wheat. At all events, it is certain wheat will not thrive on any soil that 

 does not contain lime. In this, Sir H. Davy, Chaptal, Professor Thaer, and Grisen- 

 thwaite fully agree. 



4619. A more abundant suppli/ of manure is generally required for wheat than for any 

 other grain. Professor Thaer says it absorbs more nourishment from the soil than any of 

 the corn tribe; and he calculates (hypothetically, as he allows that for every 100 parts of 

 nutriment in a soil sown with this grain, 40 will be carried off by the crop. {Principes 

 Raisonnee, tom. iv. art. Froment. ) At the same time too large a dose of manure on land 

 in good tilth is very apt to cause the crop to lodge; and hence some people think it im- 

 proper to dung rich clays or loams when fallowed, and choose rather to reserve that 

 restorative till the succeeding season, when they are prepared for a crop of drilled beans. 

 Delaying the manuring process for a year is attended with many advantages ; because 

 good land, fully wrought, contains such a principle of action within itself, as often causes 

 the first wheat crop to be lodged before it is filled; under which circumstance, the produce 

 is diminished both in quantity and quality. This delay in manuring is, however, attended 

 with disadvantages; because, when dung is kept back till the end of autumn or beginning 

 of winter, to be laid on the stubbles, the weather is often so wet that it cannot be carted on 

 without subjecting the land to injury from poaching, whilst the labor in laying it on is 

 also increased. On thin clays, or even upon soils of the other description not in high 

 condition, there can be no doubt but that the end of summer, and upon summer fallow, 

 is the most proper time for manuring them, though it will be found that an improvident 

 expenditure of dung, on such occasions, ought always to be steadily avoided. (Brown.) 



4620. Where manure is abundant, wheat alternating wdth a green crop, or indeed, any 

 corn crop and a green crop maybe grown alternately for any length of time. [Farm. 

 Mag, vol. xxiii. p. 298.) 



4621. The climate required to bring wheat to perfection must be such as affords a dry 

 and warm season for the blossoming of the ear, and the ripening of the grain. Wheat 

 will endure a great deal of cold during winter, if sown in a dry or well drained soil ; and 

 if it be covered with snow. Hence it is that wheat is sown as far north as Petersburgh 

 and in Sweden. Moderately moist weather before the flowering season, and after the 

 grain is set or formed, is favorable to wheat ; but continued heavy rains after the flowering 

 season produces the smut. The dry frosty winds of February and March, and even 

 April in some districts, are more injurious to the wheats of Britain than any other de- 

 scription of weather. Hoar frosts, when the plant is in the ear, produce blights ; and 

 mildews often result from or follow sultry winds and fogs. Cold, in the blossoming and 

 ripening season in July, even unaccompanied by wind or rain, produces an inferior grain, 

 greatly deficient in gluten ; and heat the contrary. The most valuable wheat of Europe 

 in this respect, is that of Sicily ; which Sir H. Davy found to contain much more gluten 

 than the best wheat of Britain. 



4622. The season of sowing wheat on clays is generally the latter end of autumn ; but 

 on early turnip soils it is sown after clover or turnips, at almost every period from the be- 

 ginning of September till the middle of March ; but the far greater part is sown in Sep- 

 tember and October. For summer wheat in the southern districts, May is sufficiently 

 early, but in the north, the last fortnight of April is thought a more eligible seed-time. In 

 the cultivation of spring-sown winter wheat, it is of importance to use the produce of 



