120 



Pure and improved Varieties of 



for this wheat and the Whitington had been similar throughout 

 the course, with the view to ascertain the result on the crop of 

 wheat. This was sown on the 3rd of February, 1838, at the rate 

 of nearly 3 bushels to the acre in drills, on land dressed in the 

 same manner as the contiguous field had been for the Whitington ; 

 the land in both may be said to be alike, the best description of 

 lightj rich, loamy soil^ The seed being large, a greater quantity 

 of it was allowed than usual. It is to be noticed that in another 

 field the seed was put in as late as the 21st February, and that it 

 ripened equally well and early. 



3rd. Hardihood and j)ower to withstand severe winters. — This 

 wheat has succeeded in the North of Scotland, and is sufficiently 

 hardy to withstand the winter in its grassy state, but it is otherwise 

 more valuable as a spring crop : without doubt it may be sown as 

 late as the first week in February, in all the milder parts of Eng- 

 land, with a prospect of reaping quite as good an average cfop 

 from it as from any other wheat, but with a certainty of obtaining 

 more flour than from most. A celebrated Scotch agriculturist 

 wrote of it on the 12th of September last — Talavera is nearly 

 ripe, but such has been the untowardness of the season, I do not 

 expect any other wheat to make any return." This testimony is 

 in favour of its early habits and hardihood also. It is what the 

 French have long sought for — both a winter and a spring wheat. 



4th. Early maturity and severance of crop. — The wheat ap- 

 peared in 25 days, on the 1 st of March ; it was in bloom on the 

 30th of June, and was chopped on the 17th of August, a week 

 sooner than the Whitington, which was sown nearly a month be- 

 fore it. 



5th. Tendency to degenerate and liabilities to disease. — There 

 is no tendency to degenerate observable in this wheat, as far as 

 the experience of five or six years goes ; nor from its early habits 

 is it at all likely to become intermixed by fecundation from other 

 varieties, though sown about the same period, as it will, in such 

 cases, flower a fortnight or three weeks before them. It is not 

 more liable to disease than ordinary white wheats, and afl'ords a 

 very fine, clear white straw : it is indeed one of the Italian bonnet- 

 making varieties. There is, however, one disadvantage in it, 

 which is, that the ear is so heavy that it is apt to break down, 

 though not break off, when swept by a gale about the period of 

 ripening ; but it has a countervailing good quality, of ripening the 

 grain equally well though bent down ; as is the case with spring 

 wheats, which ripen their seed well though quite laid, which with 



