TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c, Gl 



" desire of extending the cultivation of it will be beyond the 

 " power of Mr. Hastings to supply the seed/' 



The wheat barlt-y now growing here, is from Mr. Hastings's 

 stock. I received it from Sir Hugh Inglis, who has been inde- 

 fatigable in every thing that relates to our improvements. At 

 the time he sent it, he informed me that a gentleman in Devon- 

 shire having occasion to plough up four acres of a lawn, they were 

 first sown with turnips ; and he had a very poor crop. Early in 

 April he again sowed the four acres, with four bushels of bailey 

 wheat, which came up very thin, but at the end of June, when 

 Sir Hugh Tnglis saw it, it was the wonder of the country, and at 

 harvest the four acres yielded two hundred and forty bushels, or 

 60 bushels per acre. 



Some experiments I have lately made with this valuable corn, 

 will be found to coincide with the statements given by these 

 respectable authorities. They will likewise shew that both hex- 

 agonal barley, and barley wheat, are rather improved in this soil 

 and climate, because from comparative weights of one hundred 

 grains, (the produce of the island crops,) I have invariublu found 

 them much heavier than the English seed. 



Of the two casks of barley wheat I received from Sir Hugh 

 Inglis, in 1810 and 1811, unfortunatel}' not a grain would vege- 

 tate: the whole was damaged. Relying on the casks, 1 gave 

 ten pounds of seed, which were contained in a bag that accom- 

 panied the cask in 1810 to Colonel Broughton. This seed was 

 perfectly good It was sown at Long Wood, and had a fine appear- 

 ance, but as it approached to maturity, it was attacked by Canary 

 birds, and none was saved. Fortunately, however, I reserved a 

 few grains, taken out of the bag, for one of the numbers of an 

 experiment bed in the front garden at Plantation-house. These 

 were sown in a square, rather less than three feet, and of 81 dit~ 



