6 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



produce of one particular kind a condition, as Mr. Fjfe 

 remarks, " essential to good cropping, and uniform ripening 

 and growth " the seeds are chosen, or rather, to speak 

 correctly, taken indiscriminately without choice, so inter- 

 mixed in variety, that the " stalks of some overtop the 

 others, and many of the grains drop dead-ripe out of the 

 ears before the rest are ready for cutting down." The 

 farmer, he justly remarks, cannot control the seasons, but 

 by choosing his seed- wheat with care he may modify them 

 to a very considerable extent in his favour. With the 

 deeper cultivation of our soils, secured by improved and 

 powerful mechanism, it is probable that if better results 

 are not attained in a degree easily marked by common ob- 

 servation, still we may predicate with safety, that a condi- 

 tion of matters will be brought about more favourable than 

 hitherto to the cultivation of the finer and more productive 

 grains. Seeing that this will be one of the good results of 

 an improved system of culture, the importance, as Mr. 

 Fyfe remarks, of being able to discriminate between one 

 kind of grain and another, is obvious enough. Taking 

 the number of wheats cultivated generally at the present 

 time at fifty, " nevertheless minute marks appertaining to 

 particular grains," must be registered and borne in mind 

 by experts in examining them. " The mere size, shape, or 

 colour afford no distinctive tests. One grain, however, has 

 a central ridge which is characteristic, another is pointed 

 to both ends, a third to the right, and a fourth to the 

 wrong or life-bud extremity only ; a fifth variety is marked 

 by the prominency of these life-buds, a sixth possesses 

 near the pointed end a peculiar wrinkle, whilst a seventh 

 and an eighth may be known by having this wrinkle more 

 or less pronounced. These peculiarly distinctive marks 

 are nevertheless only to be taken as such in the several 

 classes of wheat to which they are specially appropriate, 

 since accident or sport in vegetating may render them in- 

 terchangeable in others also." Although the distinctive 

 marks characterising different varieties of wheat are thus 

 liable to change, still on the whole, " means exist of suffi- 



