Book VI. WHEAT. 815 



thrive on any soil which does not contain lime. In this Sir H. Davy, Chaptal, Pro- 

 fessor Thaer, and Grisenthwaite fully agree. 



5022. A more abundant supply of manure is generally required for wheat than for any other grain. 

 Professor Thaer says it absorbs more nourishment from the soil than any of the corn tribe ; and he cal- 

 culates (hypothetically, as he allows,) that for every 100 parts of nutriment in a soil sown with this grain, 

 40 will be carried off by the crop. (Prt'ncipes Raisonnes, torn. iv. art. Froment.) At the same time, too 

 large a dose of manure on land in good tilth is very apt to cause the crop to lodge ; and hence some people 

 think it improper to dung rich clays or loams when fallowed, and choose rather to reserve that restorative 

 till the succeeding season, when they are prepared for a crop of drilled beans. Delaying the manuiing 

 process for a year is attended with many advantages ; because good land, fully wrought, contains such a 

 principle of action within itself, as often causes the first wheat crop to be lodged before it is filled ; under 

 which circumstance, the produce is diminished both in quantity and quality. The delay in manuring is, 

 however, attended with disadvantages ; because, when dung is kept back till the end of autumn or be- 

 ginning of winter, to be laid on the stubbles, the weather is often so wet that it cannot be carted on 

 without subjecting the land to injury from poaching, whilst the labour in laying it on is also increased. On 

 thin clays, or even upon soils of the other description not in high condition, there can be no doubt but 

 that the end of summer, and upon summer fallow, is the most proper time for manuring, though it will 

 be fuund, that an improvident expenditure of dung on such occasions ought always to be steadily avoided. 

 {Brown.) 



.5023. Where manure is abundant, it is stated by some that wheat alternating with a green crop, or 

 indeed any corn crop and a green crop, may be grown alternately for an indefinite time. [Farm. Mag. 

 vol. xxiii. I). 298.) It is alleged by others, that this doctrine is not supported by experience. Constant 

 tillage, they say, wears out the best soils, and the grain degenerates in quality, if not in quantity too. 

 Instances, however, are given in The Cotmnumcattons to the Board of Agriculture of potatoes and wheat 

 having been grown alternately on the same soil for a number of years, and very good crops produced. It 

 may be useful to know that the thing is not impossible. 



5024. The climate required to bring wheat to perfection must be such as affords a dry 

 and warm season for the blossoming of the ear, and the ripening of the grain. Wheat 

 will endure a great deal of cold during winter, if sown in a dry or well drained soil ; and 

 if it be covered with snow. Hence it is that wheat is sown as far north as Petersburgh 

 and in Sweden. Moderately moist weather before the flowering season, and after the 

 grain is set or formed, is favourable to wheat; but continued heavy rains after the flowering 

 season produce the smut. The dry frosty winds of February and March, and even 

 of April in some districts, are more injurious to the wheats of Britain than any other 

 description of weather. Hoar frosts, when the plant is in the ear, produce blights ; and 

 mildews often result from or follow sultry winds and fogs. Cold, in the blossoming and 

 ripening season in July, even unaccompanied by wind or rain, produces an inferior grain, 

 greatly deficient in gluten ; and heat the contrary. The most valuable wheat of Europe, 

 in this respect, is that of Sicily ; which Sir H. Davy found to contain much more gluten 

 than the best wheat of Britain. 



.5025. The season for solving wheat on clays is generally the latter end of autumn ; on 

 early turnip soils it is sown after clover or turnips, at almost every period from the 

 beginning of September till the middle of March ; but the far greater part is sown in 

 September and October. For summer 'wheat, in the southern districts. May is suf- 

 ficiently early, but in the north, the last fortnight of April is thought a more eligible 

 seed-time. In the cultivation of spring-sown winter wheat, it is of importance to 

 use the produce of spring- sown grain as seed, as the crop of such grain ripens about a 

 fortnight earlier than when the produce of the same wheat winter-sown is employed as 

 spring seed. (Encijc- Brit. art. Agr.) 



5026. Seed wheat is prejmred for sowing by the process called pickling. According to 

 Brown ( Treatise on Rural Affairs, art. Wheat), this process is indispensably necessary on 

 every soil ; otherwise smut, to a greater or less extent, will, in nine cases out of ten, 

 assuredly follow. 



5027. Though almost all practical farmers are agreed as to the necessity of pickling, yet they are not so 

 unanimous as to the modus operandi of the process, and the article which is best calculated to answer the 

 intended purpose. Stale urine may be considered the safest and surest pickle ; and where it can be obtained 

 in a sufficient quantity, it is commonly resorted to. The mode of using it does not, however, seem to be 

 agreed upon ; for, while one party contends that the grain ought to be steeped in the urine, another party 

 considers it sufficient to sprinkle the urine upon it. Some, again, are advocates for thoroughly steeping 

 the grain in a pickle made of salt and water, sufficiently strong to buoy up a fresh egg. But whatever 

 difference of opinion there may be as to the kind of pickle that ought to be used, and the mode of using it, 

 all admit the utility of mixing the wetted seed with hot lime, fresh slaked; and this, in one point of view, 

 is absolutely necessary, so that the seed may be equally distributed. It may be remarked, that experience 

 justifies the utility of all these modes, provided they are attentively carried into execution. There is some 

 danger from the first ; for if the seed steeped in urine is not immediately sown, it will infallibly lose its 

 vegetative power. The second, viz. sprinkling the urine on the seed, seems to be the safest, if performed 

 by an attentive hand ; whilst the last may do equally well, if such a quantity of salt be incorporated with 

 the water as to render it of sufficient strength. It may also be remarked, that this last mode is oftener 

 accompanied with smut, owing no doubt to a deficiency of strength in the pickle j whereas a single head 

 with smut is rarely discovered when urine has been used. 



5028. An improved mode of preparing wheat for sowing has recently been adopted in the south of Scot- 

 land, and followed with great success. It is thus described : " Take four vessels, two of them smaller than 

 the other two, the former with wire bottoms, and of a size to contain about a bushel of wheat, the latter 

 large enough to hold the smaller within them. Fill one of the large tubs with water, and putting the 

 wheat in the small one, immerse it in the water, and stir and skim off the grains that float above, and 

 renew the water as often as is necessary, till it comes off almost quite clean. Then raise the small vessel 

 in which the wheat is contained, and repeat the process with it in the other large tub, which is to be filled 

 with stale urine; and in the mean time wash more wheat in the water tub. When abundance of water is 

 at hand, this operation is by no means tedious ; and the wheat is much more effectually cleansed from all 

 impurities, and freed more completely from weak and unhealthy grainsand seeds of weeds, than can be 



