450 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 8 



Colonel Le Couteur has kept a most minute ac- 

 count of his experiments, and taken the great- 

 est care to preserve the best sorts in their purity. 

 He has in London nineteen varieties of the great- 

 est beauty and such as the frequenters of Mark liane 

 say could not be matched in England lor purity. 



The Colonel, after three years' experience, has 

 arrived at this conclusion — that the proper mode 

 of cultivation of wheat is yet unknown or un- 

 practised. 



That it is of consequence to keep the several 

 sorts to grow apart, because they all ripen at dif- 

 ferent periods, and that bread made ot" ripe and 

 unripe corn could neither be so wholesome nor 

 nutritious as when made of ripe corn without the 

 mixture ot that which had not been well ripened. 



That each sort will thrive best on a particular 

 soil and situation adapted to it. 



That one ear of a particular variety, sown grain 

 by grain, and suffered to tiller apart, produced 41b. 

 9 oz. of wheat; whereas another ear of an inferior 

 sort, treated in the same manner, produced only lib. 

 13 oz. Hence it is of importance to select the 

 sorts that are the most farinaceous and productive. 



That by sowing each sort apart, they might be 

 easier saved and harvested in rotation, some sorts 

 ripening a fortnight belbre the others. That the 

 same quantity of wheat of a larinaceous kind may 

 maintain afamily of filteen persons twelve months, 

 where the same quantity of another kind, though 

 apparently fine corn, will maintain them only nine 

 months. 



The following extract from an article by Mr. 

 Gorrie, in Messrs. Drummond's third rejiorf, will 

 show that nature has been equally profuse in pre- 

 senting to the attention of the tiirmer an ample 

 variety of plants, wherewith, to improve his mea- 

 dows and pastures: — "out of more than two hun- 

 dred grasses suitable to our climate, it may be said 

 that only one genus, the rve-grass, has as yet re- 

 ceived general culture. From among sixty spe- 

 cies of clover, only three or four species receive 

 general attention. Of the genus lotus, sixteen 

 s|)ecies are hardy; and in waste lands two species 

 contribute to enhance the value of the pasture; 

 but in agriculture, they are seldom noticed. The 

 species of mnlilot are as numerous, many of 

 which vie with our common clover, and form ex- 

 cellent substitutes when land is clover sick, yet 

 that genus is almost quite neglected. The same 

 may be said of many species of vicia, lathyrus, 

 orobus, medicaf:;n, and other diadelphous plants, 

 which point out the apathy and remissness of the 

 tarmer. Hence ii is obvious that agricultural so- 

 cieties, as hitherto conducted, however efficient 

 in other departments, have lailed in excitinji suffi- 

 cient attention to the nature of vegetables." 



The statements demonstrate most satisfactorily 

 the vast capabilities, which exist in the living 

 functions of grain and grasses, and the successti,il 

 results of horticulture go far to establish the exist- 

 ence of a like susceptibility in the roots available 

 for agricultural purposes. Indeed, the selection 

 and propagation of improved agricultural sepds 

 has till lately been very little attended to. But 

 the subject has been taken up by Mr. Sinclair, of 

 New Cross, Mr. Sherrilf, of Muniroswells, Mr. 

 (iorrie, of Rait, and otliers; and we have little 

 doubt some iireatly improved varieties oi" our more 

 useltil field plants will be the result. Mr. Sher- 

 nd' mentions (Quar. Jour. A^.^., vol. i. pa^^e 356,) 



that the variety of the Swedish turnip, cultivated 

 in East Lothian had, by judicious selection of 

 roots from which seed was saved, been improved 

 in nutritious value upwards of 300 per cent. "Po- 

 tatoes and Swedish turnip," Mr. Sherriff says, 

 " appear to be susceptible of farther improvement 

 by judicious selection, as well as the different 

 grains so long cultivated in this country, and 

 which in almost every instance have become spu- 

 rious. But whatever may be the degree of im-_ 

 provement of which the agricultural produce of 

 the country is susceptible, by the propagation of 

 genuine seeds of the best varieties of plants, one 

 remarkable feature of such an improvement is, 

 that it could be carried into effect without any ad- 

 ditional investment of capital, or destruction of 

 that already employed. 



The facility of prapagating genuine seeds will 

 become manliest I'rom a statement of my prac- 

 tice. In the spring of 1823, a vigorous wheat 

 plant, near the centre of a field, was marked out, 

 which produced sixty-three ears, that yielded 

 2,473 grains. These were dibbled in the autunni 

 oi' the same year, the produce of the second and 

 third seasons sown broadcast in the onlinary way; 

 and the fourth harvest put me in possession of" 

 nearly forty (juarters of sound grain. In the 

 spring of this year I planted a fine purple top 

 Swedish turnip that yiekled (exclusively of the 

 seeds picked by birds and those lost in thrashing 

 and cleaning the proiluce) 100,296 grains, a num- 

 ber capable of fiirnishing plants lor upwards of 

 five imperial acres. One-tenth of an acre was 

 sown with the produce in the end of July for a 

 seed crop, part of which it is in contemplation to 

 sow for the same purpose in July, 1829. In short, 

 if the produce of the turnip in question had been 

 carefully ciiltivated to the utmost extent, the third 

 year's produce of seed would have more than 

 supplied the demand of Great Britain for a season. 



Plants and animals equally belong to the class 

 of organic beings — both are endowed with sexual 

 organs, from whose germs an offspring proceeds, 

 which in its turn exercises a propagating power; 

 so that in taking a comprehensive view of the sub- 

 ject of agricultural improvement, and especially of 

 what may be effected through the agency of seeds, 

 we find the same laws to a considerable extent act- 

 ing in both cases. However important we may 

 deem a knowledge of the subject of the propaga- 

 tion of live stock, attention to the selection of the 

 seeds of plants is no less so, but, on the contra- 

 ry, is of still greater moment, in as far as it em- 

 braces the improvement not only of the herbage 

 which supports the inferior animals, but of those 

 plants, part of which forms the direct ingredients 

 of human sustenance. The analogy just advert- 

 ed to, existing between animal and vegetable life, 

 is exemplified in the sexual union, which, under 

 certain favorable circumstances, takes place be- 

 tween varieties of the same species of plant, giv- 

 ing rise to a new race partaking of the properties 

 of boih parents, and which is termed hybrid. 

 New hybrid varieties of agricultural plants, when 

 suffered to intermingle with the original kind, dis- 

 seminate their influence around theiTi like cross- 

 bred animals, unrestrained in their intercourse 

 with the ireneral herd, till the character of the 

 stock becomes changed, and consequently deteri- 

 orated or improved. In either case, propagation 

 li-om the best variety alone, would be attended 



