Management of Wheat. 



65 



much of our heavy wet land, particularly that which is ploughed 

 in " high-backed lands. In travelling through a heavy land dis- 

 trict how often do we see these wide and round lands laid up to an 

 enormous height by repeated ploughings in one direction, under 

 the fallacious idea of drainmg the land ; but how seldom does it 

 answer the intended purpose ; though it has this disadvantage, that 

 the crop in the furrow bears no proportion to that on the ridge. 

 There is also great injury sustained in the cultivation of the land, 

 particularly in the operations of drilling or sowing the wheat-crop, 

 for there is not only the inconvenience, which arises from the 

 rounded form of the land, in carting and tillage, but there is also 

 a very great amount of injury from the treading of retentive land. 

 This is in a great measure prevented by the system of clay- farming 

 more particularly adopted in the eastern counties, Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, which are the acknowledged seat of the origin of drill- 

 husbandry. In those counties we see the width of lands or 

 stitches," as they are termed, adapted to the size of the drill, 

 either for one stroke or for a bout of the machine ; and the horses, 

 in drilling, harrowing, rolling, and other tillage operations, inva- 

 riably walk in the furrows without trampling the soil. 



Upon most of the light chalky or gravelly soils wheat generally 

 succeeds clover or trefoil ; but in cases where the plant of clover 

 fails, early peas are occasionally substituted, and as soon as the 

 peas are removed the land is sown with either coleseed, white 

 mustard, or tares, which are fed off with sheep, as a preparation 

 for wheat, and generally succeeds perfectly well. The clover or 

 trefoil is ploughed flat and shallow, the land rolled with a heavy 

 roll. The grooved drill-roller and Crosskill's clod-crusher are both 

 excellent implements for this purpose, though the drill-roller can 

 be used when the land is too moist for the clod- crusher to make 

 effective work, and it raises a greater quantity of mould for the drill. 

 Rolling after the seed is sown, treadmg or folding with sheep, are 

 means adopted for the purpose of consolidating the soil, and by 

 that means preventing the plant being thrown out, and also for 

 stopping the ravages of the wire- worm. The process of claying 

 light sandy or gravelly soils is essential for the production of a 

 good crop of wheat; it supplies materials that are wanting in the 

 soil, improves its mechanical texture by making it more adhesive 

 and less liable to be acted upon by continued drought. It is com- 

 monly found that a greater quantity of seed per acre is used on the 

 light soils than on any other kind of soil ; the end of October is 

 considered the best time of sowing. 



Upon rich, deep, dry, loamy soils, wheat is successfully culti- 

 vated after potatoes, the potatoes being removed at the latest in 

 October. It is no uncommon thing on some tracts of land — such 

 as are extensively found in the neighbourhood of East Ham, 



VOL. YIII. F 



