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Weevil in Wheat. 



Vol. XII. 



plough every working day; but as that can- 

 not probably happen in the winter quarter, 

 suppose he turns over fit\y acres instead of 

 seventy-two, these will still comprehend the 

 ploughing of the whole extent of ground al- 

 lotted to be worked every year by each pair 

 of horses when the farm was taken. In 

 fact, here is a large proportion of a whole 

 year's ploughing done in a single, and in 

 the shortest quarter of the year. 



Now, a week or two may quickly pass in 

 winter in doing things of little moment, and 

 which, in fact, amount to time being thrown 

 away; such as sending away a rake of all 

 the draughts to a stock corn market, on a 

 day when there is little prospect of disposing 

 of the grain, and when they would have 

 been better employed at home at the plough; 

 or driving some material on the farm which 



maimer. The neglected work may, no doubt, 

 be done in a short time — in an unprecedent- 

 edly short time; but in that case, it is the 

 time in which the work is done that is boast- 

 ed of, not the work itself^ — tlie measure, and 

 not the thing measured, which is held up to 

 view; and yet, time being the standard by 

 which all well-executed labour is measured, 

 it cannot be deprived of that property, what- 

 ever devices may be used to make it go be- 

 yond its steady pace. You should remem- 

 ber that its pace is the same in winter as in 

 summer, and the extent of labour, measured 

 by the length of its tread, ought to be as 

 great in winter as in summer, otherwise an 

 irreclaimable error is assuredly committed 

 in that season. 



Convinced that^eW-labour should be per- 

 severingly advanced in winter, whenever 



would better and easier be done when the , practicable, 1 am of opinion that plan is 

 ploughs are laid idle at any rate by frost; or ! good which appoints ploughmen to different 



in setting men to the corn-barn to thresh or 

 clean corn, and laying the horses idle for the 

 time; or in contriving some unimportant 

 work to fill up the time for half a day, until 

 the frost thaws a little on the lea, because it 

 would give too much trouble to take the 

 ploughs from the lea to the stubble field, if 

 there be any such at the time. Sharpening 

 and setting irons differently may form a rea- 

 sonable excuse for shitting the ploughs from 

 a stubble to a lea field, but no such excuse 

 is available in neglecting to make the oppo- 

 site transference. Such omissions and in- 

 stances of misdirected labour are too much 

 regarded as trifles in winter; but is undeni- 

 able that they occupy as much time as more 

 important work; and in a season, too, when 

 every operation of the field is preparatory to 

 one at a more busy season. Occasionally 

 the state of the work will force the conside- 

 ration on the farmer, that it is not so far ad- 

 vanced as it should be, or even as he could 

 wish; still, instead of pursuing a different 

 course from that which has given rise to the 

 reflection occasioned by the delay, his unsat- 

 isfied mind consoles itself with the assurance 

 that when the season for active work actu- 

 ally arrives, the people will be able to make 

 up for the lost time. This is, however, mere 

 delusion; for if work can be made up, so 

 can time, the two being inseparable; and 

 yet how can lost time be made up, when 

 every moment of the year has its work to 

 perform, and when that period, long as it is, 

 is usually found too short in which to do 

 everythinir as it ought to be done? "There's 

 the rub." For time eludes pursuit, and 

 brooks no interruption ; but neglected worl<, 

 though altempted to be overtaken — and it 

 may be overtaken before its issue — still the 

 race will never terminate in a satisfactory 



departments of labour; some to work con- 

 stantly on the farm, others occasionally to 

 go from home; some to be constantly, or 

 nearly so, at tiie plough, others frequently 

 at the cart. Thus the benefits of the subdi- 

 vision of labour may be extended to the 

 farm. When a certain proportion of the 

 draughts are thus set aside tor ploughing, 

 that most important of all operations will 

 not only be well done by those whose special 

 duty it is to do it, but perseveringly and ju- 

 diciously done. This proportion is only ie-' 

 gitimately employed at any other work when 

 there is no plougliing for them to execute. 

 Ploughing being a steady occupation, not 

 subject to the irregular action of the cart, 

 can be performed by the older men and 

 horses, who cannot so well bear the shocks 

 of carting as younger men and horses. , 



Weevil in Wheat. — A practical farmer 

 in our county tells us of an experiment he 

 tried in keeping off tliis scourge of our 

 wheat fields, which proved entirely success- 

 ful. Last year his crops of rye and wheat 

 were in adjoining fields, and he noticed that 

 his wheat next the rye field was, apparently, 

 unharmed by the weevil, while the remain- 

 ing part of his wheat was mostly eaten up 

 by the insect. , 



In the fall of '40, after sowing a small 

 field with wheat, and harrowing it in one 

 way, bestowed a peck of rye over the same 

 ground, and harrowed it in the other way. 

 The result is, his crop of wheat is good, 

 stands 20 bushels to the acre, and is entirely 

 free from the insect; while his neighbours 

 wheat fields, of as good soil, are wholly de- ( 

 stroyed by the weevil, and turned to pasture. 

 He is a firm believer that the small quantity 



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