TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 137 



experiment, that tlie plants removed from the seed bed, lia<! been 

 24 days in tlie ground — they were strong, and from 12 to 18 inches 

 high. This mode possesses several very material advantages, 

 which appear to have escaped the observation of those who have 

 treated on the subject. 



By sowing the seed-bed at the proper season, which may be 

 from a month to seven weeks before the period of transplanting, a 

 farmer may crop many acres of land that otherwise he might not 

 have had leisure to prepare before the season for sowing had 

 passed. His transplanted crop would not be more than three weeks 

 behind that which was sown. In new land too, where the grub 

 might be destructive to young and tender plants, whose sweet 

 milky matter is their favourite food, a tirst crop of transplanted 

 corn might be put in, without much risk ; because these older 

 plants having larger stems and roots, and harsher juices, are, I 

 conceive, far less nourishing to the young grub ; and are also 

 less liable to the depredations of those of larger size. At all 

 events, the labour of those insects, in destroying a crop well 

 advanced, would evidently be many fold greater than for one that 

 is attacked at the time the corn begins to sprout. 



These are matters that will soon be decided ; for I have at pre- 

 sent, a crop of young barley wheat (now five inches high) ad- 

 joining some that has been transplanted. If the former should 

 sutfer, and the latter escape injury from the grub, it would es- 

 tablish a very important point in farming : for by the transplant- 

 ing mode, a first crop of barley wheat (or other corn) might be 

 taken from newly broken up land, which, if dibbled close, would 

 give a large quantity of green fodder, or even of corn, whilst its 

 shading the land from the sun's heat might prevent the hatching 

 of eggs that may remain in the soil.* 



* At Long Wood die grubs lately commenced their depredations on the edge of a 

 barley wheat crop which was well grown, and covtred the field. But whether it is that 



T 



