On the Hopetoun Wheat. 



345 



insects scarcely ever injure the plant of wheat-crops. * The extent 

 of ground occupied by each variety should not be less than one 

 acre ; and after a careful measurement the lines of separation 

 ought to be well defined to guard against the intermingling of 

 varieties in the operations of sowing and harvesting. I recom- 

 mend the seed to be deposited by a drill across the ridges^ with a 

 vacancy of 2 or 3 feet intervening between the varieties, and the 

 seeding of all the land to be executed on the same day. 



Respecting the quantity of seed I can testify from experience 

 and observation that, even with the same variety of w^heat, any 

 material difference in the state of the plant, all other circum- 

 stances being alike, influences the size of ear^, length of straw,, time 

 of ripening, and the quantity and quality of produce, as well as 

 the effects of red gum and mildew. To particularize some of 

 these effects, it may be stated that a thin ''plant," that is to 

 say, a small number of the young plants of wheat standing upon 

 a given space of ground, generally enlarges the ears and corns, 

 retards the ripening, and aggravates the effects of red gum and 

 mildeW;, while the straw is shortened both by a very thick and a 

 very thin plant. In some seasons a moderately thin plant is 

 found to be advantageous both to quantity and quality of grain^ 

 and in others highly injurious. It is therefore desirable in com- 

 parative trials to have all the varieties of the same thickness of 

 " plant." This, however, cannot always be attained by sowing 

 the same quantities of each kind of wheat, because the seed may 

 vary in size, and perhaps 3 corns of the Bellevue Talavera will 

 be found to occupy more space than 4 corns of Chidham wheat. 

 Another source of error may lie in the different propensity of 

 different wheats to tiller or send out side -shoots. I therefore re- 

 commend, first, that the trial-w^heats be sown, not by equal 

 measures, but by measures calculated to contain an equal number 

 of seeds ; and, secondly, that the seeds be sown so thickly as 

 not to call forth the tillering property. 



I have found portions of wheat-crops, consisting of the same 

 variety and growing on the same field, under a parity of circum- 

 stances, except as to time of sowing, differ in quantity of grain 

 produce from 20 to 50 per cent., the quality being nearly alike. 

 These defalcations principally arose from the wheat-fly, a minute 

 short-lived insect seldom noticed by farmers, that generally con- 

 fines its attacks to ears escaping from the sheath, and they were the 

 result of the ears of such portions having appeared at the very 

 time w^hen the fly was depositing its eggs. Wheats, however, 

 sown at the same time, are found to come into ear at different 



* Although it is not uncommon in Scotland to sow wheat after potatoes, 

 in many parts of England potatoes are a very bad preparation for wheat, as 

 exhausting the soil and in some way affecting the wheat. — C. E. Lefroy. 



