ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 135 



Virginia. Chaff red, heads well filled, berry red, hardy. 

 Tn^-i.tn Bald, from Italy in 1837. Berry large and white, 

 not hardy, flour good. Tuscan ^Bearded. Head large, 

 still less hardy. Yorkshire, from England, ten years ago. 

 Mixed variety of white and red chaff, bald, berry white, 

 good flour, liable to injury from insects, subject to ergot. 

 Bellevere 1\dlavera. White variety from England, head 

 large, tillers well, not hardy, insects like it much. Peggie- 

 sham, English. Head large, berry white, and medium 

 sized, tender for our winters (all this is calculated for New 

 York State.) Golden Drop, English. Berry red, flour not 

 lirst rate. Skinner Wheat. Produced from crosses, berry 

 red, chaff white, hardy, yield good, sixty-four pounds to the 

 bushel. Mediterranean. Chaff light, red bearded, berry 

 red and long, very flinty, flour inferior. Hume's WJiite 

 Wtieat from crosses. A beautiful white wheat, berry 

 large, bran thin, hardy and a valuable variety. J3lue Stem. 

 Cultivated for thirty-three years, berry white, sixty-four 

 pounds to the bushel, flour superior, bran thin, and very 

 productive. Valparaiso WJieat, from South America. 

 Chaff white, bald, berry white, bran thin, a good vari- 

 ety. 



PREPARING SEED FOR SOWING. Seed wheat should be 

 subjected to a process which shall separate all chess, cockle, 

 etc., from it, together with the shrunken kernels of the 

 wheat itself. This may be, in part, done by screening ; but 

 the light -grain will float and may thus be detected in the 

 process of brining. Two tubs, or half barrels, may be con- 

 veniently used. A strong brine of salt and water is pre- 

 ferred, and the wheat, in convenient parcels, is poured in, 

 the light wheat skimmed from the top, the brine poured off 

 into the second tub, and the heavy wheat at the bottom 

 put into some suitable receptacle to drain for an hour. 

 When in successive parcels the whole quantity to be used 

 has been brined, let it be emptied upon a smooth floor, and 

 limed at the rate of about a bushel of lime to ten of wheat. 



