WHEAT LAND. 33 



No sooner has the cheerful sound of harvest-home 

 announced the close of one year's labours, than the 

 farmer immediately begins to prepare for the next. 

 " Ceaseless," indeed, is the " round of rural labour," 

 scarcely an interval being left in the whole year without 

 its needful task. 



The great business of autumn or early winter is 

 wheat solving, for that invaluable plant is able to bear 

 the changes of our climate without serious injury. A 

 large proportion of land in this country is very well 

 suited to its culture, having that firmness arising from 

 a certain portion of clay, which agrees so well with this 

 crop. But a very slight difference in situation or ex- 

 posure will often produce a very great diversity in the 

 fertility of the land, so that in this country no two 

 farms are precisely alike, or capable of exactly the same 

 treatment. This is, perhaps, an advantage to British 

 farmers, making each more independent in his opera- 

 tions, and more disposed to exercise his own judgment 

 and ingenuity, than to lean on the opinions of others. 

 The systems which are suitable for other farms might 

 not be advantageous for his ; therefore he is slow to 

 give up an old method, which has proved a profitable 

 one, for a new method, which may prove a failure. 

 This feeling has, in some instances, been carried to 

 excess, and has checked the progress of agricultural 

 improvement. 



Each farmer knows, by experience, on what part of 

 his land wheat may be sown to the greatest advantage : 

 he remembers the motto, common among practical men 

 " Consult the nature of the soil ;" and he loses no 

 time in clearing the most desirable fields for this 

 important crop. Breaking up the summer fallows, or 

 clearing away the potato or other crops which wheat 

 is to follow, he may be seen actively employed during 

 September, October, and November, in preparation for, 

 and in the actual business of, sowing. 



But this operation is not carried on without due re- 



D 



