( 113 ) 



X. — On pure and improved Varieties of Wheat lately introduced 

 into England. — An EssaVj to which the Prize of Twenty Sove- 

 reigns was awarded in July, 1839. — By Colonel Le Couteur. 



White Downy. 



1st. The mode ofjyrocuring the soiis^ of wheat described. — One 

 of the best varieties of wheat in general cultivation, from which 

 I have raised large crops, is the White Downy," or hoary — the 



Veloute " of the French — described in my work on Wheat. 



This excellent variety is believed to be the same that is so well 

 described by Boys, in his ^ General View of the Agriculture of 

 Kent,' as the " Hoary White," or Velvet-eared;" said by him 

 to have been much prized by the millers, but then entirely lost. 



2nd. Its culture, — vix., j^reparation and quantity of the seed ; 

 time and metliod of solving ; relation both as to preceding and 

 following crops, and as to varieties of soil. — The seed w^as care- 

 fully washed in several waters, till the water appeared clear on 

 stirring the wheat with it : this is intended to draw off any 

 smut, rust, or noxious invisible seed of the fungus tribe, which 

 might be adhering to it, previous to steeping it in brine, made 

 sufficiently strong to float a potato or an egg. In this it was 

 steeped a night;, or about tw^elve hours ; then w^ell mixed with 

 powdered lime. This process, it is thought, ensures the destruc- 

 tion of the eggs or larvse of any invisible insect adhering to the 

 seed. 



Time and method of sowing.~The seed thus prepared was 

 sown in drills, on the 29th of January, 1836, 7 inches apart, 

 with an ordinary w^heat drilling-machine, at the rate of 2 bushels^ 

 or a little more^, to the acre. The wheat was carefully hand- 

 hoed in the month of May, which caused it to tiller freely. 



Relation both as to preceding and following crops. — The land 

 in w^hich the above wheat was sown had been well dressed vAth. 

 9 loads of dung to the acre, the previous year, for potatoes, which 

 were twice horse-hoed, and once hand-hoed, to remove any weeds 

 that the horse-hoe might have left. The land remained very 

 clean ; and after the potatoes were dug, and well cleared from the 

 soil by 2 ploughings, 36 quarters of sea-weed (or kelp) ashes 

 were spread on the field, or 9 quarters to the acre, at a cost of 

 2/. 55. per acre, and, a month afterwards, ploughed in, about 

 5 inches in depth, with a view to nourish and warm the young 

 shoots of the wheat, sown 3 inches deep. The ashes have a 

 peculiar tendency to cause the wheat to grain, and render it 

 plump, white, thin-skinned, and farinaceous. They have the 

 additional quality of greatly augmenting the produce of the suc- 



VOL. I. I 



