Varieties of Wheat and Metliods of Improving them. 243 
Egyptian Cono, Hunter's Wheat, Thick-set Suffolk, Hickley's 
ProHfic, Blue Cone, Silver Drop, and Golden Drop. The inost 
valuable crop, alike of grain and straw, was yielded by " a red 
wheat " from Cirencester ; but Thick-set Suffolk was not far 
behind, (i olden Drop was good in both respects, and Old Red 
Lamnuis nearly as good in grain, better in weight of straw. 
Hunter's did badly in grain and straw, and Talavera did only 
moderately, although in Surrey I have known it in some years 
excel all the corn on the farm, being early at harvest, very 
superior in quality, and productive, on sound land, in a good 
climate. 
I may remark on this veiy interesting experiment, that 
although some of the leading characteristics of a variety may 
be ascertained even by a single trial, its suitability for ^^articular 
soils and climates, and its behaviour under different kinds of 
culture, or in succession to the various crops of the farm — 
clover, folded turnips, mangold, or potatoes, with the varied 
tiltlis they leave behind them and the several degrees of fer- 
tility — can only be ascertained by a series of many such 
experiments as that which has just been recorded. 
Among the varieties grown by Colonel Le Couteur, by far 
the most prolific was his own Talavera, introduced by him from 
Spain in 1830. In his work on wheat he described this famous 
sort as having been raised by him from a single grain, and as 
proving invaluable where it is adapted to the soil and climate. 
In trying this wheat against several others he sowed it on 
February 3, 1838, drilling 3 bushels per acre, and the crop 
ripened early and yielded 52 bushels per acre. In that season 
a Scotch farmer reported that Talavera from the Colonel's farm 
in Jersey was nearly ripe on September 12, and that he did not 
expect any return whatever from any other sort of wheat owing 
to the lateness of the season. 
I am able to state that a selected strain of Talavera was for 
many years a favourite sort on the farm of a near relative in 
Surrey, in a district where only white wheat is grown, Chidham 
being a favourite. It was frequently sown in February ; but 
that was in a soil and climate where wheat was commonly sown 
in the latest winter months. Talavera was not, with us in 
Surrey, more liable to disease than ordinary white wheats, and 
it yielded a fine, clear, white straw, suitable for plaiting. Colonel 
Le Couteur says that the chaff of Talavera adheres to the ear with 
such tenacity that more of it remains on the ear after thrashing 
than in any other variety. In jM. Henry de Vilmorin's gi'eat work, 
Les Meillenrs Bles, Talavera is described as a wheat of super- 
fine quality both of straw and grain, as wxU as a free tiller, 
K 2 
