224 EXPERIMENTS QN WHEAT, Part IT. 



tJl] i'piing. What I have been faying is more particularly applicable 

 to lands laid out in beds *, 



" The lame rules by which I judge of the proper time of fowing 

 litre, may ealiiy be adapted to other climates, in feme of which the 

 land wiJl require being fowed earlier, and in others later. 



" The choice of the feed is the fecond thing, which to me feems td 

 require more particular care than many may perhaps imagine. Every 

 one certainly endeavours to chufe the bell wheat he can for feed : 

 and it ought Ukewife to be very clean. Such corn is not difficult ta 

 be had, when reaped off the beds cultivated in our way. 



" Tho' wheat fo green that it had fcarce loft its milky quality, 

 fprouted pretty well when I tried the experiment with it; I think it 

 is more proper to fow none but what is thoroughly ripe. The feed 

 has then attained its full perfedlion ; and it is from that ripenefs that 

 we may mofl certainly expe<fl the mofl: vigorous plants. 



" The wheat that has been reaped in a warm dry year, feems to 

 me fitter for fowing, than that which has been gathered in a cold 

 wet year : for in fuch a feafon, all the productions of the earth are 

 lels good ; their talle is lefs favoury ; and as that wheat in particular 

 in which there is moft moifture, is mofl difficult to keep, I infer 

 from thence that the formation of its grain mufl: be lefs perfedt. I 

 fhould therefore prefer wheat a year old, provided the year it was 

 gathered in was warm and dry, to that which may have juft been 

 gathered in too rainy a feafon. Accordingly, I always chufe for 

 fowing, wheat of the growth of my high lands, rather than that 

 which has been produced in flats. 



" The benefit accruing from all this care, may, perhaps, not be 

 extremely great ; but at the fame time it cofts nothing. Let us do 

 in agriculture what is done in all manufadlures : the very fmalleil 

 profits, the very leaft favings, are never negledled. Thofe fmall ar- 

 ticles, often repeated, make large fums in the long run, and are a 

 real profit. 



" There is another thing of greater confeqiience, and of which 

 I flrongly recommend the pradlice. It will not be attended with 

 any expence. It is by repeated experiments, always attended with 

 the fame fuccefs, that I have found it to be extremely fervice- 



able 



* Repeated experience has taught us, that the fame rule may be obferved in this 

 kingdom. Perhaps the colder the climate is, the earlier the wheat fhould be fowed, 

 that it may acquire the greater ftrength to refift the winter's cold, and fhoot its roots 

 lo deep into the earth, that it may not be thrown out by the froft. 



