76 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Septembei 19, 1832. 



Fron. tlic Library of Entertaining Knowledge. 



WHEAT. 



Concluded from page 58. 



One-seeded IVkeal, or St Peter's corn. — (Triti- 

 cuvi monococcum.) Tliis is anotlier variety ; the 

 stems and leaves of which are among the most 

 diminutive of tlie species, and the spike contains 

 only a single row of grains. This kind is chiefly 

 used in the mountainons parts of Switzerland, and 

 containing less of gluten than conniion sorts, it 

 answers better for being boiled into gruel, than for 

 being baked into bread. The four-sided form of 

 the ripe ear is so extremely regular, that it has the 

 appearance of being carved in ivory. The straw, 

 which is both hard and firm, is excellent for thatch- 



Ear and Plant of One-seeded Wheat. 



The well known method of propagatng wheat 

 is by sowing the grain in land previously prepared 

 for its reception by ploughing. It has been held 

 that this important preliminary of pulverizing the 

 soil can hardly be carried to excess, the expense 

 attending it forming almost the only limit to its 

 prosecution. Cato the censor, who, in addilion to 

 his accomplishments as a warrior and a statesman 

 showed an intimate acquaintance with rural econ- 

 omy, has recorded his opinion on the necessity of 

 thoroughly turning up the soil. In his treatise, 

 " De re Rusticn,'" be has laid it down as the first 

 rule in husbandry to plough well, and the second 

 rule — to plough.* 



Two distinct practices ,ire followed in commit- 

 ting the seed to the earth. The most ancient and 

 most commonly used of these is that of scattering 

 the seed from the hand of the sower over the 

 whole surface ; and this is characteristically called 

 sowing broad-cast. The other method, which is 

 comparatively of modern introihiction, is that of 

 depositing the seed in holes formed in straight 

 furrows, and at regular intervals, which is called 

 drilling, or dibbling ; while the processes which 

 accompany it, and which are inipracticable with 

 the broad-cast method, are distinguished as the 

 horse-hoeing or drill system of husbandry. 



Lord Bacon says, that, in his time (the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century,) attempts had been made 

 to plant wheat, but that the plan was abandoned, 

 although undoubtedly advantageous, as involving 

 too much labor.f In ]6()9, Evelyn furnished to 

 the Royal Society a description of a sowing ma- 

 chine invented by Locatelli, an Italian, who had 



" Cap. Ixi, 



t SylvaSylvarum. 



obtaiiied a patent for its use in Spain, having 

 proved its utility by public experiment.* The 

 drill plough was, however, not used in England, 

 and was perhaps, quite unknown to a body of 

 men who are proverbially slow all over the world 

 to adopt any improvement, till public attention 

 was awakened to it, in the early part of the last 

 century, by the celebrated Jethro Tull, who, after 

 practically following (or some years his own im- 

 proved plan of husbandry, and thereby proving its 

 advantages, published a particular account of his 

 process in the year 1733. This work, which he 

 entitled "An Essay on Horse-hoeing Husbandry," 

 became highly popular, compelling the attention of 

 English agriculturists to the subject, and engaging 

 no less the consideration of scientific foreigners. 

 The system of Mr Tull consisted in discarding the 

 old method of scattering seed upon the land broad- 

 cast, and in substituting a mode of sowing the 

 grain in straight rows or furrows by means of an 

 implement more perfect than Locatelli's machine, 

 which delivered the seed at proper intervals, and 

 in the exact quantity that was found most benefi- 

 cial. Spaces of fifty inches breadth were left be- 

 tween the furrows, so that the land could be 

 ploughed or horse-hoed in these intervals at vari- 

 ous periods during the growth of the crop, the ob- 

 ject of these hoeings being to bring fresh portions 

 of the soil into contact with the fibrous roots of 

 the plants, and thus to render every part in turn 

 available for their nutrition. One niaterial advan- 

 tage that results from the new method of husband- 

 ry is the saving which it occasions in seed-corn, 

 anil which is said to amount to five eighths of the 

 quantity usually expended in the old method. The 

 comparative merits of the two plans have for so 

 long a time been submitted to the surest of »\l 

 test.s, that of experience, and have been so well 

 examined by competent persons, who have given 

 the result of their inquiries to the world, that it 

 cannot be necessary to do more in this place than 

 refer the reader to those authors for farther in- 

 formation. 



The manner in which plants are produced 

 through the germination of seeds is so well known, 

 that in any community where the human mind 

 has been advanced in that degree which incites to 

 the cultivation of the earth, it would perhaps he 

 <lifficult to find a man so insensible to the work- 

 ings of nature by which lie is surrounded, as not 

 to have noticed with admiration the phenomena 

 accompanying the development of vegetable fe- 

 cundity. It is true we know not how this stand- 

 ing miracle is brought about ; and, in all huinnn 

 probability, we never shall be able to pierce the 

 veil wherein the inciting energy is shrouded to 

 which that fecundity is owing; but is it possible 

 for us, while conscious that it exists, not to be 

 grateful for the benevolence whereby that energy 

 is ceaselessly called into action ? At one end of 

 the groove, in a grain of wheat, is a small protu- 

 berance, as we have already mentioned, which is 

 the germ or < ud)ryo of the future plant. This or- 

 gan has been appropriately called corculum (little 

 heart.) It contains within itself a principle, which, 

 if rightly managed, is capable of evolving not oidy 

 a plant of wheat, with it:) abundant spike, but also 

 plant aft:er plant, and spike after spike, until, in 

 the course of a few harvests, the progeny of this 

 little germ would become capable of feeding a na- 



* See Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. iv. p, 45, 

 ed. 1817. 



tion. Thus it is, that in the lapse of ages, amidst 

 the desolations of rude conquerors, and the alter- 

 nations which the finest portions of the earth have 

 endured from civilization to semi-barbarism, the 

 vital principle of vegetable life destined for the 

 chief snp|>ort of the human race has not been lost : 

 and it has remained to man, like fire, which he 

 alone of all animals has subjected to his use, to be 

 called forth at his bidding to administer to his 

 sup])ort, his comfort, and his advance in every art 

 of social existence. 



The number of stalks thrown up by one grain 

 of wheat is indefinite, and depends upon local 

 causes. This power of multiplication, as possess- 

 ed by the grain-bearing plants, is called tillering. 

 In its ]irogress, the stalks do not rise immediately 

 from the germ, but are thrown out from diflerent 

 Ijoints of the infant sprouts while yet they remain 

 in contact with the moist soil. An increase of 

 the cereal plants, by this means, is sometimes pro- 

 duced beyond anything conceivable by those per- 

 sons who have not attended to the fact. But for 

 it, the casualties to which these important plants 

 are liable during the earlier stages of vegetation, 

 woidd in many cases operate fatally to the hopes 

 of the farmer. One or two circumstances may 

 be mentioned in which this power of nuiltiplying 

 themselves at the roots is of the highest advantage 

 in the cultivation of the cereal grains. An insect, 

 (mnsca pumilionis,) is accustomed to deposit its 

 ef;gs in the very core of the plumule or primary 

 shoot of wheat, so that it is completely destroyed 

 hj the larva'. Did the plant possess within itself 

 nn means of repairing this injury, the whole pre- 

 vious labor of the husbandman would in this case 

 liove been in vain. But this destruction occur- 

 ring in the spring of the year, when the vegetative 

 power of the ]>lant is in the greatest activity, an 

 efi'ect is produced somewhat analogous to that of 

 hiai ing down a fruit tree ; shoots immediately 

 spriig up from the nodes (knots,) the plant be- 

 comes more firmly rooted, and produces, proba- 

 bly, » dozen stems and ears where, hut for th« 

 temporary mischief, it might have sent forth oidy 

 one. 



Wieat-fly {Musca pumilionis,) injta different stngea. 



Several extraordinary facts have been recorded 

 in connexion with the inherent power of multipli- 

 cation possessed by these vegetables. Among 

 others. Sir Kenclm Digby asserted, in IGGO, that 

 " there was in the possession of the Fathers of the 

 Christian doctrine at Paris, a plant of barley which 

 they at that time kept as a curiosity, and which 

 consisted of two hundred and fortynine stalki 

 springing from one root or grain, and in which 

 they counted above eighteen thousand grains or 



