64 



Management of Wheat. 



When this or any other kind of land has been previously got 

 into a high state of cultivation, it is frequently cleaned and made 

 ready in the autumn for dunging in the spring, and then sown 

 with turnips or mangold, which are usually carried off in the 

 autumn and the land sown with wheat. But sometimes the roots 

 cannot be removed till late in the season ; the time of sowing is 

 then sometimes delayed till January or February, when spring- 

 wheat is generally sown. Upon ordinary heavy soils that have a 

 dry subsoil and do not require draining, white turnips, grown upon 

 the fallows and fed off with sheep during the months of October 

 and November, are an excellent preparation for wheat. When this 

 plan is adopted, wheat is generally grown three times in a double 

 four-course system of 8 years, namely — 1st year, fallow for tur- 

 nips ; 2nd year, wheat ; 3rd year, beans or peas ; 4th year, wheat: 

 the next round being — 5th year, fallow for swedes ; 6th year, 

 barley; 7th, clover; 8th, wheat. Upon some soils a heavier and 

 better sample is produced after turnips than by any other pre- 

 paration. 



Wheat is often sown after beans. In this case dung should be 

 applied for the beans, which if kept clean will be a good prepa- 

 ration for wheat. This is preferable to dunging immediately for 

 wheat, which often occasions blight ; but, by having an interme- 

 diate crop of beans, blight is generally prevented, and better crops, 

 both of wheat and beans, are produced. If farm-yard dung cannot 

 be obtained for the beans, rape-cake drilled in at the time of sow- 

 ing the wheat at the rate of from 8 to 16 bushels per acre will 

 generally be found sufficient to produce a crop. 



On the heavy clay lands of Norfolk and Suffolk, barley has 

 taken the place of wheat after fallow, and the wheat either follows 

 clover or beans and peas ; the rotation commonly adopted being — 

 1st year, fallow ; 2nd, barley ; 3rd, half clover, half beans or peas ; 

 4th, wheat. The dung is applied to the pulse by the best farmers, 

 and the crop is well hand or horse-hoed. Wheat is drilled after 

 beans, though hand-dibbled by many after clover. Farm-yard 

 manure is used heavily on clover-layers, either on the young seeds 

 during winter, or a short time before ploughing the land for wheat. 

 The former method is preferred by many, because the clover has 

 the benefit of the dung, and the wheat comes kindlier." This 

 system of exposing the manure to the atmosphere will appear to 

 tell against the generally-approved method of ploughing it in : at 

 the same time, admitting that much of its virtue evaporates into 

 the air, yet the clover absorbs a portion of that part of the manure 

 which suits its growth, leaving such properties to be taken up 

 by the wheat which are peculiarly beneficial to it. The system 

 of growing grain-crops on the retentive clayey soils of the eastern 

 counties is one that might be followed with some advantage on 



