EFFECT OF FROST UPON WHEAT. 175 



March, which blow away the remainder of the soil from 

 them, and the plant dies, not a natural death, but one 

 through neglect on the part of the farmer first, in not 

 getting his wheat in early enough ; and, secondly, in not 

 afterwards taking the precaution of closing the soil to the 

 roots of the plant when the frost was over." 



This view was corroborated by other writers who followed 

 upon its publication, the remarks of one of which we can 

 only here find room for : 



" I quite agree with the * Old Norfolk Farmer ' that 

 winter frosts lift up the wheat plants, and, if not rolled 

 early in spring, are greatly damaged by the evaporating 

 days and frosty nights of March and April. It is only re- 

 quisite for any farmer, especially those occupying light- 

 land farms, to walk across his young growing wheat after 

 the last little winter has passed away, and he will observe 

 the rootlets of thousands of plants neither in nor out of 

 the soil, and in such a state to cause the rootlets to wither 

 under the influence of frosty nights and sunny days, unless 

 replanted with a heavy iron roller (Cambridge roller I pre- 

 fer), applied at the very first opportunity in spring, at a time 

 when the soil will print, and not too dry as to be dusty. 



" I rolled a very thin flat of wheat on the 4th of April 

 last ; I likewise took the precaution, and' rolled the whole 

 of my young seeds, as they suffer each year throughout the 

 country, more or less, from the like cause as wheat, and I 

 can assure you I am being amply repaid for the trouble, as 

 my seed-pastures are looking well; whereas my neigh- 

 bours' look as badly, for want of attending to this impor- 

 tant means of rolling in early spring. Science applied to 

 agriculture will achieve much, but practice will frequently 

 beat science in some seasons. In every winter I have found 

 that the mechanical treading of sheep, in wet weather, upon 

 light land (chalk), plays a most important effect upon the 

 following crops, provided the land be ploughed up and 

 harrowed before it becomes too much dried in spring. 

 Chalk soils, with turnips which have been eaten off with 

 sheep when it has either been covered with snow or har- 



