210 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGnOM. 



mon red wheat, one of the plants from which 

 had tillered so much, that on the 8th of August 

 he was enabled to divide it into eighteen plants, 

 all of which were placed separately in the ground. 

 In the course of September and October so many 

 of these plants had again multiplied their stalks, 

 that the number of plants which were separately 

 set out to stand the winter was sixty-seven. 

 With the first growth of the spring the tillering 

 again went forward, so that at the end of March 

 and beginning of April a farther division was 

 made, and the number of plants now amounted 

 to five hundred. Mr Miller expressed his opi- 

 nion, that before the season had too far advanced 

 one other division might have been effected, when 

 the number might have been at least quadrupled. 

 The five hundred plants proved extremely vi- 

 gorous, much more so than wheat under ordi- 

 nary culture, so that the number of ears submit- 

 ted to the sickle was 21,109, or more than forty 

 to each of the divided plants : in some instances 

 there were one hundred care upon one plant. 

 The ears were remarkably fine, some being six 

 or seven inches long, and containing from sixty 

 to seventy gi'ains. The wheat, when separated 

 from the straw, weighed forty-seven pounds and 

 seven ounces, and measured three pecks and 

 three quarters, the estimated number of grains 

 being 676,840. 



Such an enormous increase is not of course at- 

 tainable on any great scale, or by the common 

 modes of culture ; but the experiment is of use 

 as showing the vast power of increase with which 

 the most valuable of vegetables is endowed, and 

 which, by judiciously varying the mode of til- 

 lage, may possibly in time be brought into bene- 

 ficial action. 



The ordinary produce of wheat varies exceed- 

 ingly, depending much upon the quality of the 

 soil, the nature of the season, and the mode of 

 culture. The average produce of the soil of a 

 country depends, as does every other species of 

 production, upon the advance of its inhabitants 

 in knowledge and in the possession of capital. 

 It has been conjectured, that in the 13th century 

 an acre of good land in England would produce 

 twelve bushels of wheat. In two centuries this 

 rate of produce appears to have greatly increased. 

 Harrison, writing in 1574, says, "The yield of 

 our come-ground is much after this rate follow- 

 ing: — Throughout the land (if you please to 

 make an estimate thereof by the acre), in meane 

 and indifferent years, wherein each acre of ric 

 or wheat, well tilled and dressed, will yield com- 

 monlie sixteene or twentie bushels; an acre of 

 barley, six-and-thirtie bushels ; of otes, and such 

 like, four or five quartere ; which proportion is 

 notwithstanding oft abated toward the north, as 

 it is oftentimes surmounted in the south." The 

 mean produce in Great Britain, according to 

 the estimate of Mr Arthur Young, did not, at 



the time when he wrote (about fifty yeara ago) 

 exceed twenty-two and a half bushels per acre. 

 Other and later writers have calculated the aver- 

 age at from twenty-four to twenty-eight bushels ; 

 while the author of the Reports on Agriculture 

 for Middlesex has asserted, that the medium 

 quantity in that county is forty bushels, the 

 highest produce he has known being sixty-eight, 

 and the lowest twelve bushels per acre. The 

 land in the county which was the subject of these 

 Reports, owing to its proximity to the metropo- 

 lis, may be considered as in a state of high con- 

 dition, and much beyond the ordinary rate of 

 fertility. At all times, and in every country, 

 some situations will be found more prolific than 

 others, and some individuals will be more suc- 

 cessful in their agricultural labours. Pliny has 

 related a case which occurred among the Ro- 

 mans, where this success was seen in so marked 

 a degree, that the able agriculturist who, by ex- 

 celling his countrymen, had rendered himself 

 the object of envy, was cited before the Cui-ule 

 Edile and an assembly of the people, to answer 

 to a charge of sorcery, founded on his reaping 

 much larger crops from his very small spot oi 

 ground than his neighbours did from their ex- 

 tensive fields. " In answer to this charge Cre- 

 sinus produced his efficient implements of hus- 

 bandry, his well-fed oxen, and a hale young wo- 

 man his daughter, and pointing to them, ex- 

 claimed. These, Romans, are my instruments of 

 witchcraft ; but I cannot here show you my la- 

 bours, sweats, and anxious cares." 



It will easily be conceived that the quantity 

 of straw must vary considerably from year to 

 year, according to the seasons, and that this pro- 

 duce will likewise be generally influenced by the 

 nature of the soil. It is therefore impossible to 

 give any certain information upon this point ; 

 but it will perhaps amount to a near approxima- 

 tion to the truth, if we consider that for every 

 twelve bushels of wheat, one load, containing 

 thirty-six trusses of straw, will be obtained, the 

 weight of which is 11 cwt. 2 qrs. 8 lbs. The 

 straw of summer wheat is more agreeable to 

 cattle than that produced from winter sowing.* 



This most important vegetable is not wholly 

 free from casualties apart from climate. The 

 principal of these are blight, mildew, and smut, 

 which we have already explained in the chapter 

 on the diseases of vegetables. 



There are two modes of sowing wheat prac- 

 tised by agriculturists. The one consists in scat- 

 tering the grain from the hand over the well- 

 ploughed fields, and is called sowing broad-cast; 

 the other is by sowing it in uniform drills, or 

 dibbling it, and afterwards hoeing and clearing it 

 fi'om weeds. This latter practice was attempted 

 in the time of lord Bacon ; but it was abandoned 



* Libriiry of Useful Knowledge 



