70 THE CULTURE OF WHEAT. Parti. 



des Tcrres, his countrymen were unacquainted with the drill huf- 

 bandry. It was therefore neceflary to make them acquainted with 

 the principles of that hufbandry, and to give general direftions for 

 the culture of fuch plants as are moil ufeful to farmers. The ex- 

 pedments hereafter related contain the heft and fulleft inflrudlions 

 for what ought to be done in the culture of each of thefe plants. 

 We fliall therefore refer the pradlical Farmer to thofe experiments, 

 and mention here only the following general obfervations. 



Though the culture that is beftowed on plants whilft they are in 

 the earth is highly beneficial to all kinds of them, it is flill more 

 necelTary to thofe which remain long in the ground. Therefore 

 wheat, which remains nine months in the earth, requires more 

 culture than barley, oats, or buck-wheat, which remain in it but 

 three, four, or five months. 



Wheat is fowed in autumn, after the earth has been brought to a 

 fine tilth : it fprings up, and pudies forth fome leaves and roots r 

 and when the winter is mild, the roots extend themfelves, and the 

 plant fhoots out new ftalks, or, as fome call it, tillers : but by the 

 winter rains, and the melting of the fnow, the particles of the earth 

 are fo clofely united together, that the foil is almoft as hard and 

 fadden'd in the fpring, as if it had not been plowed at all. Yet this 

 is the feafon in which the wheat ought to Ihoot with the greateft 

 vigour: but inftead of that, we often fee its leaves turn yellow, 

 its flalks dwindle, and the plant in a languidiing flate. Wheat 

 fometimes looks better in the fpring in a middling foil, than in 

 one better adapted to that plant j becaufe the latter grows flifFer and 

 harder than the former. 



Plowings, at proper feafons, give great vigour and flrength to 

 plants, preferve them green and in good condition, and deftroy the 

 weeds in the alleys. But as the plough cannot reach the weeds 

 which grow between the rows, or in the beds, it is necelfary to 

 deftroy them as much as pollible before the land is fown : and it 

 will be ealier for the weeders to root them out of the beds with- 

 out hurting the corn, by following the new hufbandry, than by 

 the old. 



Mr. Tull mentions feveral experiments which prove, i . That 

 wheat grows better in land plov/ed according to the new hufbandrj', 

 without being dunged, than in land equally good and well dunged, 

 but cultivated in the old way. 



a. That a field which had been under wheat the year before, 



yielded 



