246 Varieties of Wlieaf and Methods of Improvioig them. 
while in otlievs only the most healthful and vigorous wheats 
are capable of withstanding the special diseases which attack 
the crop. Mr. W. C. Little's Report on Wheat-Mildew 
(Journal, Vol. XIX. p. 034) is in this direction specially in- 
structive. There is an old-established wheat, he tells us, 
which in the fen country is called the " Anti-Mildew" wheat. 
Mildew is a prevalent disease in the fens, and no doubt 
every kind of wheat mildews there sometimes ; but the hardy 
kind just named is supposed to have a greater power of 
resisting disease than any other sort. Rivett, or cone wheat, 
is also rarely attacked, as any one who, like myself, has farmed 
in Essex might expect : since in that county, where it was in 
high favour in the halcyon days for heavy land and corn- 
growing, it was often sown on land that was hardly in con- 
dition for a crop of the better sorts. On account of its stout, 
stiff straw and heavy beard it was called " large " wheat, all 
other sorts going by the name of " small," and high farmers 
were fond of sowing it as a second wheat crop after the other 
sorts. Tiptree was always well charged with manure, and at 
one period Mr. Mechi was fond of proclaiming his success in 
the growth of two crops of wheat in succession, " small " 
wheat the first year and " large " wheat to follow, the latter 
often yielding six or seven quarters per acre. The excellence 
of this advice was dependent on the superior constitutional 
vigour of Eivett wheat. 
Mr. Little also mentions that Talavera, on the other hand, 
was regarded in the Fens as peculiarly susceptible to mildew, 
and that Velvet Chaff, Rough Chaff, or Hoary White, is be- 
lieved to be a dangerous wheat, especially when it follows a 
clover ley. 
Other sorts mentioned by Mr. Little as being most sus- 
ceptible to mildew are Scholey's Square Head, Golden Drop, 
Nursery, and several sorts of white wheat ; while Rivett, 
Lenny's White, Browick, and Red Chaff White were compara- 
tively safe. Sir J. B. Lawes had observed Fen wheat suffer- 
ing from mildew when his own was free from it, and he 
atti'ibuted this to the want of available mineral food in the 
soil. Under these circumstances it can readily be understood 
that ammoniacal manures might increase the evil. On the 
thin chalks both of Hampshire and Kent nitrate of soda, 
which is sometimes the only necessary manure on clays and 
greensand well stored with minerals, is avoided with full know- 
ledge on the part of all experienced farmers that even small 
dressings of this manure increase the tendency to mildew. A 
plant improver can hardly be expected to produce a cereal 
