Farming of Oxfordshire. 
211 
Seven or eight pecks of seed are first sown, and, as the season 
advances, the quantity is increased to ten. It is commonly 
prepared with a solution of blue vitriol. One pound of 
vitriol, of which the cost is dt?. or 5rf., is amply sufficient for a 
sack, and sometimes that quantity serves for a quarter. The 
vitriol is first dissolved in a little hot water, to which is added 
two gallons cold ; it is then sprinkled over the wheat from a 
watering-pot. The wheat should be turned two or three times that 
all may be wetted, and will soon be sufficiently dry for sowing. 
The application is not dangerous, and is a certain preventive of 
the smut and pepper-brand. The weeds that appear in the wheat 
crop are cut up in the spring, but regular hoeing is not practised 
to any extent. Red wheat is grown on the stonebrash and chalk 
hills : the favourite sorts are the Red Lammas and the Spaldings, 
the latter being more of a farmer's wheat than a miller's. In 
the Cotswold district a famous quality of red wheat is grown on 
the two-years' ley : the produce of this tract may average 24 
bushels per acre ; on the chalk 20 bushels is a fair crop. On 
the other soils of the country most white wheat is grown, the red 
sorts being planted on the coldest and worst lands. 
The varieties of white wheat are many, but the most extensively 
grown are the Trump, Suffolk, Hopetoun, Rough-chaff, Scotch, 
Dantzic, Australian, and Red-chaff white. Malaga and Talavera 
are similar wheats, and are sown in the spring. Good wheat 
lands may yield from 32 to 36 bushels per acre ; the gravels 
from 28 to 32. Arthur Young calculated the average yield of 
the county at 24 bushels per acre : perhaps the average of the 
last few years would not exceed 26 bushels ; but then it must be 
remembered that a much larger extent of ground is under culti- 
vation for wheat than at the beginning of the present century ; 
and that all the best land for the production of wheat was sown 
then, and the poorer and uncertain soils have since been added. 
Moreover, it appears that wheat will not bear forcing so well as 
other grain, and if over-stimulated by high farming is sure to be 
lodged or attacked by disease. The most common enemies of 
the wheat crop in this country are the slug, the blight or mildew, 
and that little devastator, the wheat midge. This troublesome 
insect most frequently destroys the kernel of early wheats, while 
mildew is more common in thin, late-sown, and highly-manured 
crops. White wheats are more liable to mildew than the har- 
dier red, especially when planted in the spring. Even before 
the blade appears above the ground it is often attacked by slugs. 
They have been particularly active this autumn, and are common 
in bean-stubble wheats in most seasons. Some farmers feed 
the slugs by scattering turnip-leaves over the young wheats, 
others apply salt, but the best cure for these destructive creatures 
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