CROPS. 49 



ficient light and heat the harvest is always late, growth 

 having taken place more slowly than in an average 

 season. In the case of extremely cold and cloudy summers 

 the whole season may be too short for maturing the crop, 

 and the seed in consequence may never be fully ripened. 



Each crop requires more or less a different climate for 

 its perfect development ; a knowledge of the kind of 

 climate best suited to each crop is of great service in 

 selecting crops for any particular district. Thus wheat 

 requires hot and dry weather for its ripening period, while 

 oats will ripen in a moist atmosphere. Mangels require 

 heat, and can resist drought, while turnips develope best 

 in a cool moist air. Oats and turnips thus best suit a 

 Scotch climate, while wheat and mangels are better 

 fitted for the south-east of England. 



The soil best furnished with plant food is the one which 

 will yield the best results in adverse seasons, the crop 

 having a greater amount of vitality, and being able to 

 turn to the best advantage the short periods of favourable 

 weather that may occur. Poor soils yield their best results 

 in seasons of slow but continued growth, the crop having 

 a longer time to collect the scanty supply of food which 

 the soil contains. In hot seasons, with an early harvest, 

 only soils well supplied with food can produce full crops. 



The character of the winter has often considerable in- 

 fluence on that of the following season. In a wet winter 

 the soil may lose nitrates by drainage to a considerable 

 extent. Koot development will also be prevented by ex- 

 cessive wet. After such a winter the wheat crop gene- 

 rally is in a backward condition, and finds itself in an 

 impoverished soil. The injurious effects of severe frost 

 are well known. 



