262 OF CROPS USUALLY CULTIVATED. 



between autumn wheat, and the same kind sown in spring, 

 Mr Rennie thinks, that in ordinary seasons, the spring- 

 sown is equal in quantity on light dry land, but is not to be 

 depended on where the soil is wet, or the climate unfavour- 

 able, nor is it so early ripe as that raised from seed sown in 

 autumn.* What is called brown wheat is reckoned the best 



* Though not strictly connected with the subject of Scotch husbandry, 

 I cannot deny myself the pleasure of inserting the following note, con- 

 taining some particulars transmitted to me by that celebrated farmer, 

 {Jeorge Culley, regarding the spring culture of winter wheat. 



" Respecting the sowing of winter wheat in the spring, after turnips, 

 I can speak in a very full manner, as I am persuaded very few farmers in 

 this island have had more experience of that practice. I believe that 

 spring-sown winter wheat, had not been much tried in this county, before 

 my late brother and I settled in Northumberland in the year 17C7. We 

 had made some small trials of it in the county of Durham before coining 

 north ; immediately on our taking Fenton farm, however, we tried it up- 

 on a pretty large scale, namely, from 100 to 200 acres in the year. But 

 for many years after, having extended our farming concerns, we seldom 

 grew fewer than 500 acres and upwards annually, and with never-failing 

 success, one year excepted, when a partial mildew took place, and until 

 those last three fatal years, when most of the wheat in these northern 

 parts of the island, have been more or less affected with that dreadful 

 malady ! Not that spring-sown wheat was more hurt than the winter- 

 sown, but perhaps less injured upou the whole. Nevertheless, I do not 

 know, whether I ought to recommend it to be much sown in the southern 

 counties or not, because, in the trials we made in the county of Durham, 

 we had nothing like such plentiful crops as we produce here. 



" Besides, in the county of Durham, and all the way from thence to 

 the southward, they can grow more barley in quantity, and better in qua- 

 lity, than we can by much, and it is also always much higher sold ; con- 

 sequently the growing of spring-sown winter wheat after turnips, becomes 

 not so much a matter of consequence to them. Allow me to remark one 

 thing, which I cannot account for; we can perhaps produce the best oats 

 of any in Great Britain, and yet we grow very indifferent barley. Per- 

 haps, not only the friable fertility of our turnip soils in Glendale Ward, 

 but the vicinity of the mountains, may be favourable to the production 



