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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS AND NOTICES. 
VIII. — Report on the Wheat selected for Trial at Southampton, 
and on other Wheats. By VV. Miles, M.P. 
Having been requested to prove by trial the value of the wheat selected 
by the judges at Southampton, I beg to submit to the Council the fol- 
lowing Report. 
The different sorts I determined to try against the prize wheat were 
four — namely, Jonas' prolific seedling, the red-straw white, the Hope- 
town, and Fenton. Tiie first of these I had grown every year since car- 
rying out the wheat experiment for the Society in 1841, with uniform 
success, and without going from home for change of seed. The second 
I procured from Mr. Morton, who has for some time grown it at the 
Example Farm, and who speaks highly of its character. The third I 
obtained from ]SIr. Sheriff, who himself raised it from a seedling ; this 
sort is more generally known throughout the country than the two 
former, and is much prized : whilst, from the recommendation of Mr. 
Sheriff, I applied to Mr. Hope, of Fenton Barns, Haddington, for the 
fourth sort, which had been raised from a seedling discovered by Mr. 
Hope, senior, in a stone-quarry. This wheat is already celebrated in 
Scotland for its wonderful produce ; it grows very uneven, many stalks 
not rising above three feet from the ground, whilst others attain four, 
five, or more. Of this wheat I received the subjoined notice from 
Mr. Hope : — 
" As I understand you are to sow it by way of trial against the prize 
wheat of the Royal Agricultural Society, I may give you a sliort history 
of it. A number of years ago it was observed growing in an old quarry 
by my father, who was struck with the stiffness of the straw: there were 
three heads from one stein, which were properly saved and propagated. 
It is quite a distinct variety from anything known in this quarter. 
The straw is shorter than most kinds, but remarkably stiff, and weighing 
per acre as heavy as taller sorts, while the increase of graiu grown is 
generally equal to the rent of the land. A person unacquainted with it 
would scarcely expect this when looking at it growing, the heads being 
unequal, some of them being 2 feet higher than others." 
Tlie field which I chose for carrying out the experiment was on 
tiie side of a hill, facing N.N.W. ; the character of the soil a ricii 
loam, inclining in some places to marl, of considerable depth, except 
on the summit of the slope, where it was stony. It was a one-year- 
old clover ley, which had been once mown, and afterwards fed bv 
sheep. The controversy between the merits of thick and thin sowing 
having been carried on at considerable length between the advocates of 
the different systems, as perfectly unprejudiced in favour of eitlier, I 
determined to try both ; and Lord Ducie having undertaken the manu- 
facture of Newberry's dibbling-machine, an opportunity was offered of 
jiutting in a small quantity of seed with the best constructed implement 
of the kind. Previously to making use of the machine, however, it whs 
tested in a grusi-field, when it was found that it deposited in each hole 
