WHEAT. 



" I 



r>-. weighing 66 pounds to the bushel, 

 nnd producing flour of good quality. 

 This is a very hardy variety ; straw 

 of good size, and very bright ; it has 

 the quality of the Virginia May in its 

 early ripening. 



Red Bearded. — Red chafT. bearded ; 

 beards standing out from the head ; 

 berry white, weighing from 60 to 62 

 pounds the bushel ; yields Hour well, 

 and of good (lualily ; this is a hardy 

 variety ; succeeds well after corn, or 

 on light soils. Straw not large or very 

 stilT. This variety would be more 

 extensively cultivated if its beard 

 were not objectionable. 



Mediterranean. — This was introdu- 

 ced into Maryland from the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea. It is a light red chaff, 

 bearded ; berry red and long ; very 

 flinty ; bran thick, producing flour of 

 an inferior quality. This variety may 

 prove valuable at the South, being 

 seldom affected with the fly, and its 

 early ripening is favourable on ac- 

 count of rust. Its long, stiff beards, 

 heads short, shelling very easy (so 

 much so, that if it is not cut while 

 in its doughy state, there will be a 

 great loss), and the inferior quality 

 of its flour, are strong objections to 

 its culture, where wheat of superior 

 quality succeeds well. 



Blue Stem. — Has been cultivated in 

 Virginia for about thirty years ; white 

 chaff, bald ; berry white ; weighs 64 

 pounds to the bushel ; bran thin ; 

 produces flour of superior quality. 

 Formerly this was a red wheat, now 

 it is changed to a beautiful white 

 Straw fair size, producing well. It 

 is now one of the most productive 

 varieties cultivated in Virginia. 



Besides these well-known varieties 

 of winter wheats, several are of local 

 reputation and worthy of trial. Some, 

 as the Valparaiso and Humes's white, 

 are of great promise, but remain to 

 be fully tested. The choice English 

 varieties, as the Talavera, golden 

 drop, are found too tender for our se- 

 vere winters in Xew-York. 



Of spring wheats, the Tea, or Sibe- 

 rian, bald, and Black Sea are the best. 

 The Italian spring, formerly in great 

 demand, has much degenerated. 



4C 



" The distinction between the win- 

 ter and summer wheats is one which 

 arises entirely from the season in 

 which they have been usually sown ; 

 for they can readily be converted into 

 each other by sowing earlier or later, 

 and gradually accelerating or retard- 

 ing their growth. The di^flcrcnce in 

 colour between red and white wheats 

 is owing chiefly to the soil ; white 

 wheats gradually becoiiin darker, and 

 ultimately red in some stiff, wet soils, 

 and the red wheats lose their colour 

 and become first yellow and then 

 white on rich, light, and mellow soils. 

 It is remarkable that the grain soon- 

 er changes colour than the chaff and 

 straw : hence we have red wheats 

 with white chaff, and white wheats 

 with red chaff, which on the forego- 

 ing principle is readily accounted for. 

 The chaff retains the original colour 

 when the skin of the grain has al- 

 ready changed to another. We state 

 this on our own experience. The 



I soil best adapted to the growth of 



j wheat is a deep loam inclined to clay 



I with a dry subsoil. If this is not so 

 naturally, it must be drained artifi- 



j cially, to ensure good crops of wheat. 

 In such a soil, wheat may be sown 

 every third year, with proper inter- 

 mediate crops. Formerly, the prep- 

 aration for a wheat crop was gener- 

 ally by a clean, naked fallow, with a 

 certain addition of manure, the re- 

 mains of which were thought suffi- 

 cient for a crop of barley or oats ; 

 alter which the fallow recurred. It 



, was soon found out that, by this 

 means, a crop of wheat could never 

 be forced beyond a certain average; 



j for if more than the usual portion of 

 manure was carried on the land, the 

 wheat failed, by being laid before it 

 arrived at maturity. Thus a limit 

 appeared to have been set to its in- 

 crease. New modes of cultivation 

 have shown that this was not with- 

 out its remedy, and that it was recent 

 manuring which caused the wheat to 



I lodge ; but that an increased fertility, 

 produced by judicious preparation, en- 

 abled the land to bear crops of wheat 

 far superior to what it ever could he- 

 fore. Wheat requires a soil in which 



853 



