WHEAT. 



brought forward with more vigour, by the acquiliuon of a 

 larsrer proportion of nutritions matter from the joints in 

 confequence, that mull otherwife have been exhaufted in 

 fupporting the central ftems. It is, however, a method 

 which has been found by experience to be the moft ufeful 

 on fuch ftrong and fertile lands as are apt to produce a 

 larger proportion of ftraw than can be properly fupPO'-t«l- 

 In which cafes, advantage has been faid to be derived by 

 feeding off the blade at two or more fucceffive "m^sj but 

 in effefling the bufinefs, great care is neceffary to fee that 

 the whole is completed before the crop begins to fp.ndle 

 otherwife more injury than good may be produced. And 

 on the lighter and poor defcriptions of foils, the praaice 

 mud be employed with great caution, as on fuch lands the 

 erowth of the crops may be fo retarded, as to become 

 weak and fpindly. Befides, on thofe lands where they are 

 very liirht, and the crops thin, injury may frequently be 

 done by many of the plants being pulled up, on account 

 of the clofenefs of the bite of the (heep. Ihey Ihould, 

 therefore, never be fuffered to remain upon the crops 

 when the weather is wet, and the furface of the ground 

 much loofened, or after fudden frofts and thaws ; as in 

 fuch cafes much hann may be done by the plants being 

 pulbd up and deftroyed. 



The treading of the animals may, however, be ot great 

 fervice in all the light forts of wheat-land, and where the 

 crops are thin ; as by it the earth will not only be preffed 

 more clofely about the roots of the plants, but the ftems 

 in many inftances fo forced into the ground and covered up, 

 that new Ihoots will be fent off laterally, and the crops be 

 thus rendered more full on the land. But where the foils 

 are very ftiff and adhefive, the growth of the crops may be 

 checked and retarded by the pradice, and of courfe the 

 (hoots thus caufed become weak, affording only fmall ears 

 and hght grain. Obfervations and experiments have con- 

 vinced a writer in the Bath Papers, that wheat ought not 

 to be fed down with (heep, unlefsit be very rank in January ; 

 and that fuch crops (hould only be fed as were fown early. 

 And it has been fuggelled, that though this pradice has 

 much limilarity to that employed in gardening, of ftopping 

 the growth of the main ftems of fome forts of plants, as 

 thofe of the cucumber and melon kinds, by rubbing off or 

 cutting away the central buds, in order to expedite their 

 fruiting ; yet in wheat-crops, where the principal ftems are 

 eaten down, except when they are early, and of very 

 luxuriant growth, the ears of the new fhoots may not have 

 time to perfetl; the feed, and of courfe become hght and 

 fhrivelled in the grain, and the new ftems from their 

 weaknefs be more apt to fall down and be lodged. Thefe 

 are circumftances that have been frequently obferved to 

 occur by Mr. TuU, in the feeding down of wheat-crops by 

 means of ftieep. And that the fame philofophical ob- 

 ferver fuppofes, that in the culture of wheat-crops, the 

 moft beneficial method is that of promoting, as much as 

 poffible, the time of bloffoming, while that of ripening is 

 protrafted, as it is for the farinaceous refervoir of nutriment, 

 depofited in the cotyledon of the new feed, in order to 

 fupport the growth of the ccrculum, or frefh embryon, that 

 the plant is cultivated ; which farinaceous depofition is 

 effefted in the interval between the bloffoming and ripening 

 of the corn, either before the impregnation of the pericarp 

 or feed-veffel, or afterwards ; and the weight and plump- 

 nefs of the rain are thus augmented. 



The praftice of feeding down young wheats by fheep 

 may, therefore, be often hurtful, by retarding the period of 

 bloffoming, as well as by reftriding the growth of the ftems 

 of the wheat-plants. 



Sheep have likewife been employed on young wheat- 

 crops in other views, as it has been remarked, that as the 

 coronal parts of the roots of fuch crops are liable to be 

 laid bare and expofed for fome inches in length about the 

 furface of the earth, during fevere frofty winters, the turn- 

 ing in ftieep upon them in fuch circumftances when the 

 ground- is moift, and keeping them in motion, may tend to 

 prefs them into the loofe foil, and in that way produce new 

 roots, as well as afford covering and protetlion to fuch as 

 have been denudated. And, it is added, that fome farmers 

 who contend that much advantage is derived from it, turn 

 fheep upon the crops where danger is apprehended from 

 worms, flugs, and other infefts ; in order that by keeping 

 them conftantly in motion, fuch animals may either be 

 wholly deftroyed, or fo fixed in the furface mould as to 

 caufe their more gradual death. There is a very great 

 variety of thefe animals, which are fuppofed injurious to 

 wheat as well as other crops ; and for the deftruftion of 

 which, lime, foot, and other faline matters, have been had 

 recourfe to with fuppofed advantage. See Grub, Soot, 

 &c. 



Wheat-crops are fuppofed to be much injured from dif- 

 ferent forts of vegetable difeafes, as the Blight, Blqfl, Mil' 

 Jetf, Smut, Sec. &c. See thefe different heads. 



In the Effex Report it is mentioned, that a difeafe which 

 had not before been noticed or heard of, was met with at 

 Copdock in that dittrift, which is called the purples. The 

 ears affetled are perceived at once by their colour, a dirty 

 brown mixed with green, as if part was ripe, with fome 

 chefts quite green : they feel nearly, but not quite, like 

 blighted or abortive ears, which are brown, while the ears 

 in general of tlie crop are of a bright red or white ; 

 when rubbed in the hand, as if to get the grain, no wheat is 

 found, but apparently the fmall grains of a flattened in- 

 dented globular form, and of a darkifti purple, greenifti or 

 dark hue. It has not the fmalleft refemblance- in appearance 

 or fcent to fmutty grains or bladders, and is certainly a 

 diftinft diftemper. In many of thefe purpled ears are found 

 fome grains of good wlieat. In order to difcover if all the 

 ears from the fame root were affefted on trial, in many in- 

 ftances they were found all fimilar from every root. It is 

 very Angular that no account that is recollefted ftiould have 

 been given of fuch a ftrange malady, and fo diftinft from 

 all others. Smutty ears were found in the fame field, under 

 all the common circumftances of that diftemper. In Kent, 

 it is faid, this diftemper is called cockle-eared. 



It has likewife been noticed, that particular ftates of the 

 weather have confiderable influence on wheat-crops, at par- 

 ticular periods of their growth. As when the feafon is 

 fufficicntly dry, there is feldom much injury done to them 

 during the winter months, however fevere they may be in 

 other refpefts, nor in thofe of the fummer, provided the 

 weather is not too moift about the time of blooming, as 

 where that is the cafe the crops are moftly deficient in their 

 produce. 



And feveral forts of weeds are injurious to wheat -crops, 

 where they have been fown upon lands in an imperfect ftate 

 of preparation, as charlock on the hght calcareous foils ; 

 the corn poppy, on thofe of the chalky kind, as well as 

 cockle, luhite-darnel, puck-needle, and couch : likewife colt's- 

 foot on the rather heavy kinds of lands. See thefe different 

 heads, and Weed and Weeding. 



This fort of crop is fliewn to be ripe and ready for the 

 reaper by its ftraw turning of a yellow colour, its ears be- 

 ginning to bend in the neck and hang down, there being 

 no greennefs in the middle of them, and the grain becoming 

 hard and plump. It is remarked, in the Effex Report on 



Agricul- 



