20 BRITISH GRASSES. 



Well suited to strong soils in the south and middle of 

 England. The flour is especially prized by bakers for 

 dusting their tins, but not for any other purpose. The 

 awns often fall off before harvest. 



T. vulgare, var. Polonicum, has very long, nearly 

 smooth spikes; long awns and leafy chaff; the grains 

 few, hard, and narrow. 



Red wheats are accounted more hardy than white 

 ones; they produce better crops, and though they do 

 not fetch so high a price the greater quantity more 

 than equalizes the profit. On good clay or fern loam 

 the white wheats are equally productive, but on poor 

 soils the red are very preferable. The same kind of 

 wheat should not be long sown in succession on the 

 same land, nor should the seed be taken from the same 

 neighbourhood. The north and west of England should 

 be supplied from the south-eastern counties, and the 

 north and west of Scotland from East Lothian or the 

 east of England. It is a very good plan to select a 

 large vigorous ear, and plant the seed in a garden until 

 seed enough is raised from it for field-sowing; in this 

 manner the purity of a sample is secured. 



In olden time the reapers were instructed to cut the 

 straw halfway between the root and the ear, that the 

 crop might take up less space in the granary ; but in 

 these days every inch of straw is carefully hoarded, be- 

 ing used for fodder, litter, burning, bedding, and for 

 many industrial purposes, as straw-bonnets and hats, 

 the manufacture of paper, mats, baskets, etc. 



A single- grained wheat, called by the Swiss " St. 

 Peter's corn/' is cultivated occasionally among the 

 mountains of Switzerland, and the ripe ear has so neat 

 a quadrangular form, and is so fair and polished, that 



