140 



HOCKINGS' GARDEN MANUAL. 



C Z family' lias produced ears of 18 'ranks/ and this 

 without any increase in the length of the ear, the 

 ' notches ' of the axis on which the spikelets grow being 

 placed more closely together. In a small field of this 

 C Z' family, ears with 17 'ranks' were quite common, 

 while in other fields of the family 'A,' not one such 

 ear could be found" 



Cultivation of wheat. 



The land most suitable for the cultivation of wheat 

 is a moderately rich loam, which should be free of 

 weeds, in good tilth, and subjected to a proper rotation 

 of crops. On some soils wheat may be grown alter- 

 nately with a green crop, where manure is abundant. 

 Wheat is exhausting to the soil, and therefore requires 

 manure ; too large a dose, however, will sometimes 

 cause the crop to lodge, and in some instances the 

 presence of rust has been attributed to over-manuring 

 of that crop, and the manure is consequently more 

 generally applied to one of the other crops in the rota- 

 tion. The manures most suitable for wheat are animal 

 matters and lime. Thorough draining is of the utmost 

 importance. 



The land being prepared by a fallow and several 

 ploughings, the seed should be pickled as follows : — 

 Dissolve the salt in a very small quantity of water ; 

 some lime is slacked with this brine, and the wheat 

 candied with it, having been previously moistened with 

 pure water. Wheat prepared in this way is found by 

 experience to be more free from smut than when any 

 other preparation is employed. — Young, Stale urine 

 is preferred by some grow r ers. 



Method of setting wheat : " The lands on which it 

 succeeds best (Norfolk, England) are either after a 

 clover stubble or those on which trefoil or grass seeds 

 were sown in the spring before the last. The grounds, 

 after the usual manuring, are once turned over by the 

 plough in a long extended flag or turf, at ten inches 



