WHE 



W H E 



499 



made by counting the nurtiber of 

 grains in an ounce, the whole num- 

 ber of grains was about 576,840." 

 Encyclopedia. 



Though this method is curious, 

 it is attended with so much work, 

 that few or none will be disposed 

 to follow Mr. Miller's example. 



For about thirty years immedi- 

 ately preceding the year 1813, few 

 attempts were made to raise wheat 

 in parts adjacent to the sea coast 

 in Massachusetts ; and a belief 

 generally prevailed, that it could 

 not be made to thrive there, owing 

 to peculiarity of climate or some 

 other inexplicable cause. Since 

 that time, however, it has been 

 considerably cultivated. We shall 

 add to this article some abridged 

 statements of some experiments, 

 which led to the more general in- 

 troduclion of that kind of culture. 



Mr. Dudley Hardy sowed, on 

 three quarters and an half quarter 

 of an acre of land, in Brighton, near 

 Boston, twenty-eight quarts of 

 spring wheat originally from Lon- 

 donderry. The land the preced- 

 ing year had been planted with In- 

 dian corn. It was ploughed in the 

 fall ; and in the month of March, 

 before the frost was all out of the 

 ground, was ploughed over again 

 two or three times, and then har- 

 rowed with an iron tooth harrow. 

 The grain was prepared by steep- 

 ing it in ley made of ashes twenty- 

 four hours, and on the 7th of April 

 sowed, and harrowed in with the 

 same harrow. " After this," says 

 Mr. Hardy, " i bruised the ground 

 smooth with a brush harrow." 

 The twenty-eight quarts produced 

 eighteen bushels, weighing sixty 



pounds a bushel. One bushel, 

 ground and boulted, gave fort^-six 

 pounds and an half of tlour. Mr. 

 Hardy thniks. that spring wheat 

 should be sowed in the month of 

 March, if the frost will permit. — - 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Reposi- 

 tory, Vol. III. p. 31. 



Mr. J. Lowell gives the follow- 

 ing account of a trial of the same 

 kind of wheat. 



" f had but one small piece of 

 ground in a proper state to receive 

 wheat. It measured one third of 

 an acre. The soil was very thin 

 over a bed of gravel, extremely 

 subject to drought, and incapable, 

 as I thought, of bearing a large 

 crop of any sort. Potatoes had 

 been cultivated on it for two years 

 preceding. It had been twice 

 ploughed the fall before, after the 

 potatoes were dug. In the spring, 

 four horse cart loads of horse dung 

 were spread upon it and ploughed 

 in. On the seventh day of April, 

 I sowed upon it three quarters of a 

 bushel of Mr. Hardy's wheat. This 

 wheat was of small size, and rather 

 shrivelled. It is said to be the 

 same known and cultivated as Lon- 

 donderry wheat. 



" The crop looked extremely 

 well; none of it was blighted; and 

 on the second of August it was 

 reaped. It weighed from fift^-six 

 to tifty-eight pounds the bushel." — 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Reposi- 

 tory, Vol. III. p. 216. 



The same publication, pages 

 217,218, contains the experiments 

 of Hon. J. Quincy, and Hon. P. C. 

 Brooks, which, though somewhat 

 less successful than the preceding, 

 (Mr. Quincy having raised fifteen, 



