1840.] SENATE— No 36. 201 



of which 12 bushels were the best that could be procured in the Lon- 

 don market of crop 1783, 30 bushels were from East Lothian of crop 

 1783, 6 bushels the best wheat in the London market of crop 1782, 

 and 6 bushels produced near Edinburgh in that year 1782. It must 

 be remarked, that 1782 was a season generally unfavorable to raising 

 Avheat in perfection, but that in 1783 the grain was sound and of good 

 quality. The field on which these parcels of wheat were sown had 

 been well fallowed, was equally manured with dung, and the whole of 

 these seeds were sown in the beginning of October, all of them having 

 been washed in strong brine, and afterwards dried with powdered 

 quick-lime. The English seed of crop 1783 was sown on one side of 

 the field ; three bushels of the Mid-Lothian seed of crop 1782 were 

 sown on the next three ridges; to this succeeded the English seed of 

 crop 1782; then the East-Lothian wheat of crop 1783; and, lastly, 

 the remaining three bushels of Mid-Lothian seed crop 1782. 



" The field being all in good condition, the wheat appeared early 

 above ground, and the shoots were every where strong, except on 

 those ridges which were sown with the Mid-Lothian seed of crop 

 1782, on which the plants were weak and not very numerous; neither 

 did these spread or <?7/er like the others; so that during the winter 

 and spring months, the wheat on these ridges had a weak appearance ; 

 in harvest the straw was thin and short, and the ears were short and 

 small, the grain likewise being not so large or heavy as on other parts 

 of the field. On being threshed and measured, the produce of the 12 

 bushels of seed, crop 1782, both the London and the Mid-Lothian taken 

 together, was only 66 bushels, or 5i after one. The produce of the rest 

 of the field was fully 15 bushels for every bushel of seed. The differ- 

 ence in value was also considerable, as the produce of the seed from 

 crop 1782 sold almost a shilling the bushel lower than the other." — 

 Sinclair s Report of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 479, 480. 



I. 



QUANTITY OF SEED TO THE ACRE. 



*' We have stated it as our opinion, that farmers generally err on the 



side of sowing too profusely. The practice, however, has been still 



further extended by the recommendation of Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, on 



whose estates wheat is now sown at the rate of four bushels to an acre. 



26 



