WHEAT. 



WHEAT. 



This is true ; ' from 400 grains of dry barley- 

 straw,' says Sir H. Davy, 'I obtained 8 grains 

 of matter soluble in water, which had a brown 

 colour, and tasted like mucilage. From 400 

 grains of wheaten straw I obtained 5 grains of 

 a similar substance.' With this paucity of nu- 

 tritive matter in the straw before us, how can 

 we account for the fact that, in the sap of 

 wheat, the straw, and in all succulent plants, 

 there is naturally a great proportion of mucilagi- 

 nous and saccharine matter? The answer is this : 

 in all grasses and succulent plants, the great- 

 est proportion of this is present before the 

 flower is dead ripe. So in wheat, when we 

 allow the straw to remain till thoroughly ripe, 

 a portion of the sugar is converted, by the 

 action of light, heat, &c., into mucilage, and a 

 great proportion of the nutritive powers of the 

 grass absorbed by the atmosphere, or lost in 

 some manner; for, as Mr. Sinclair observes in 

 his Report of Experiments of Grasses, 'there is a 

 great difference between straws or leaves that 

 have been dried after they were cut in a suc- 

 culent state, and those which are dried (if I 

 may so express it) by Nature while growing. 

 The former retain all their nutritive powers, but 

 the latter, if completely dry, very little, if any.' 



"As a manure, too, the straw cut 'raw* is 

 equally superior to the ripe ; for, as it is an 

 agricultural axiom, that the better the food of 

 an animal is, the better the manure from it; 

 the manure from a stock consuming this 

 straw, containing a fair proportion of nutritive 

 matter, must be more valuable than that from 

 stock consuming the ripe with scarcely any 

 in it. 



" But a great proportion of the farmer's straw 

 is converted into manure without undergoing 

 the process of mastication and digestion. For 

 this purpose the unripe straw is equally pre- 

 ferable, as all unripe vegetables are manures with- 

 out preparation ; the soluble and nutritive ex- 

 tracts which they contain, being the principal 

 agents in forming vegetable manure ; as they 

 not only combine to render the process of de- 

 composition the more rapid, by breaking down 

 the woody fibres, &c., in the manure heap, but 

 are also, in their pure and separate states, sti- 

 mulants to vegetation. 



" It may be urged, that the increased value 

 of the straw is more in favour of that cut very 

 green (No. 1) than that cut a fortnight later 

 (No. 2). This is true ; but to produce this in- 

 crease of value, if we cut our wheat so early as 

 No. 1, we have a desiccation of the grain to such 

 an extent as to diminish the measured produce above 

 12 per cent.; while, by reaping with No. 2, we 

 are, so far from injuring either sample or mea- 

 sure, actually improving both, and at the same 

 time gaining above 5 per cent, in the weight, 

 and at least as much in the quality of the 

 straw. For the increase of weight in the latter 

 is not produced by a greater produce, but by 

 the presence of a greater portion of those solu- 

 ble substances which are alike necessary to 

 animal and vegetable life are alike the nutri- 

 tive part of food and the quickening principle 

 of manure. 



" 2d, We come now to the second advantage, 

 the 'better chance of securing the crop.' 



" This is self-evident. We gain a fortnight 



at the commencement of harvest. If the 

 weather be good, we can secure a great portion 

 of our wheat before we should scarcely have 

 begun upon the old system. If not, we can. 

 wait ; so, under any circumstances, our chances 

 of securing the grain must be greater. More- 

 over, if we take a retrospect of the harvests for 

 a number of years, we shall find that nearly all 

 the early harvests have been what we term 

 ' good' ones, i. e. good as regards weather and 

 the condition in which the grain was secured. 

 When the peculiarities of our climate, its ge- 

 neral fickleness, and its still greater liability to 

 change as the autumn advances, are consider- 

 ed, this will require no explanation. 



" If we look, too, at the later harvests, we 

 shall, I venture to say, find, that in nine cases 

 out of ten, the grain which was first cut was 

 secured in the best condition. As an example 

 of this, the crop of 1839 will suffice. The 

 crops were late, the beginning of reaping the 

 same, and the result was, that in the North of 

 England full 75 per cent, of the whole wheat crop 

 was damaged. And full 75 per cent, of that 

 which was uninjured, I will also venture to say, 

 was that which was cut the first. In Yorkshire 

 this was especially seen ; for the earliest wheat 

 was, with the greatest difficulty, secured. In. 

 this village (North Deighton) not a sheaf was 

 in stack till the day before, and on some 

 farms, the very day on which the rainy weather 

 set in. 



" The frequent recurrence of such years as 

 this, will teach the value of even a fortnight, 

 better than any thing that can be said here. 

 And that they will recur is beyond a doubt. 

 What has happened once may happen again, 

 but what has frequently happened (as this sort 

 of harvest has), with the same causes in opera- 

 tion, we are warranted in saying will happen 

 again, and often. 



" 3d, The saving in securing the crop is a dou- 

 ble one. In the first place, there is less waste 

 in moving or reaping, and no danger of 'shak- 

 ing' or ' necking' in strong winds. In the 

 second place, there is an absolute economy in 

 the expense of reaping the crop, which may be 

 thus illustrated. 



" The busy period of harvest with the farmer 

 generally extends over four or five weeks. la 

 this month a certain portion of his work is 

 done by his own hands, i. e. by the regular la- 

 bourers and servants of the farm ; therefore, by 

 beginning a fortnight sooner, and extending the 

 season of harvest over six weeks instead of 

 four, it is evident that these regular servants 

 would cut a much greater proportion of his 

 crop in fact, one-half more. By this he is ren- 

 dered less dependent on those extraneous 'helps' 

 or 'takers' who, in the seasons of hurry and 

 anxiety, fix their own terms. 



"To assign a value for these advantages is, 

 as has been said before, for the farmer himself; 

 and it will not be an insignificant one. For if 

 beginning harvest a fortnight earlier enables 

 him to save a crop from spoiling once in a life- 

 time, if the improved quality of his straw as 

 food for his stock allows him to plough out an 

 acre more, or to pasture another acre of clover 

 with feeding-stock, instead of mowing it for his 

 lean stock, every grain saved, every extra bushel 



'1127 



