Arjfnet 16, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
cost of all tb s with ihat of home-mixed chemical manures, 
and surely no man having ordinary intelligence can fail to 
understand how advantageous the use of chemical manures 
is. We know by analysis that a ton of farmyard manure 
contains from 9 to 15 lbs. of nitrogen, 4 to 9 lbs. of phos¬ 
phoric acid, and 9 to 15 lbs. of potash. We know that these 
three manurial constituents are required more or less by all 
farm crops ; we know also that we can obtain them in the 
form of chemical manures, and apply them to the soil at a 
cost that is absolutely trifling in comparison with that of 
farmyard manure. It is for these and similar cogent 
reasons that we so persistently advocate the general use of 
chemical manures, procured separately from reliable sources, 
and mixed at home under the supervision of the farmer. 
Well is it now to give careful thought to these things, in 
view of making all possible improvement in our work next 
season. That work will be speedily upon us, for the harvest 
is so late that we shall have to turn from it to ploughing 
and sowing at once this year. Let us then carefully mature 
our plans now, and it will help us to do so all the better if 
we look closely into results, mark every blemish and fault, 
and strive to understand the reason of failurejor success when 
we are among the crops. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Since our last note harvest work has been much hindered by rain 
and frequent complaints of rust and mildew are heard. Root crops, 
Clover, and grass thrive wonderfully, and “ keep ” is not often so 
abundant at this time cf year. More and more sheep are wanted to 
consume this superabundance of green food, and we have hardly ever 
left a market lately without having invested in one or more lots of sheep, 
which may always be purchased advantageously at the beginning of 
harvest. We much fear that crowded sheep markets just now are a sign 
of straitened means among farmers, many a man having to sell sheep 
to obtain moans for harvest expenses. We hope that the very large 
quantity of Barley which was spoilt by late rain last year will act as an 
incentive to early mowing this year. Do not wait till corn is dead ripe 
before cutting. All corn should be cut as soon as the grain has fairly 
passed the milky stage, in order to avoid shattering of grain in the field. 
Spring Oats, Barley, Wheat, and Beans are all being cut as they become 
ready, but very little carting of corn has yet been done. Some caution 
will be necessary about carting and stacking, as the showery weather has 
caused Clover and mixed layers to grow so freely among the corn that it 
must be left out after the cutting longer than usual. Turnip and Tare 
seed is abundant good and well ripened. Late Peas prove a trouble¬ 
some crop, and we hear complaints of much seed sprouting. In all such 
cases recourse must be had to pigs to turn the Peas to account. Far 
better is it to turn corn that has sprouted or become discoloured by rain 
into pork and so sell it than to accept ruinously low prices for it. Pigs 
and sheep also should be turned on the stubbles as the corn is carted, but 
care must be taken not to leave sheep there more than an hour or two at 
a time, especially upon the Barley stubbles, as they consume the fallen 
ears so greedily that there is ritk of stoppage. Pigs su tain no such harm, 
and they improve in condition very fast with stubble feeding, and are 
subsequently soon finished and got ready for market in the yards. Be 
very cautious in the purchase of store pigs. For upwards of a year losses 
from swine fever have been frequent and serious. We have reason to fear 
that outbreaks of this dreadful dieeaee are frequently concealed by un¬ 
principled dealers, and then the germs of disease spread far and wide in 
an apparently mysterious manner. 
NEW WHEATS AT PERRY HILL. 
A HIGHLY interesting and carefully conducted series of experiments 
in the cross-fertilisation of Wheat has been conducted by Messrs. James 
Carter & Co. in their trial grounds in the above nursery during the last 
four or five years. During the present season apparently all the varieties 
of Wheat that could be collected in this and other countries have been 
brought together and grown'side by side for proving their character; 
and further, those forms of English and foreign Wheat that have been 
selected for cross-fertilisation in previous seasons are grown in rows, the 
parents on each side of the allotted space to each little family, and the 
pr >geny between them. The whole forms what may be not inappro¬ 
priately termed a museum of Wheat, such as has never been seen before 
on the face t f the earth. The trials have been visited by numbers of 
persons interested in the improvement cf the premier cereal, which is 
uudeniably a subject of great moment, and the experiments in question 
may be fraught with very important results. Whatever of improvement 
has been effected in Wheats up to the present time has resulted mainly, 
if not entirely, from selection—that is, by choosing the best ears, or the 
best grains, and from these raising stocks. That the special merits of 
what may be called an accidental sport may be fixed and perpetuated, 
for a time at least, is proved in the case of various plants, including Peas; 
not a few of the varieties that have been famed in their generation, and 
some cf which are still grown, having originated in that way, and not 
from cross-fertilisation. Of late years this has been resorted to in raising 
new varieties, notably by Mr. Laxton, and now the same process has been 
adopted, and the object evidently accomplished, in the raising of Wheat. 
But granting the intercrossing, it may be asked, What proof is there that 
it has not happened in a natural manner through the transference of 
pollen by insect agency or dispersion by the wind, as in the case of 
numerous other plants? The proof is afforded by the fact that the ferti¬ 
lisation of Wheat in a natural way is effected before the florets open. It 
is thus neces arily self-fertilised. The pollen that is seen occasionally 
rising in clouds from a Wheat field during what is termed the blossoming 
period, is superfluous pollen, and the appendages called flowers that hang 
from the ears of Wheat at that time are simply the remains of the 
flowers, and fertilisation is completed before these and the pollen are 
visible. If Wheat could be crossed accidentally, instead of there being 
few varieties the number would be bewildering. But by an all-wise and 
beneficent provision its purity is preserved by sealing the flowers against 
external influences; otherwise pollen from the lower cereals, the grasses, 
might, and no doubt would have resulted in the deterioration of our most 
important food crop long ago. Under the peculiar structural conditions 
of the inflorescence it has remained the same from generation to generation, 
except where artificial fertilisation has been accomplished, or sports have 
been produced and perpetuated. 
The cross-fertilisation of Wheat is really an operation of great delicacy, 
for the flowers have to be opened and the anthers removed while still in 
a green state or before the pollen cells burst, and yet when the pistil is 
nearly developed and within a day from being ready for the reception of 
pollen, that is then obtained from the anthers of another variety, and 
applied to what is intended to be the seed-bearing parent. This is what 
has been done in the experiments under notice. 
It does not follow that in every case the progeny is superior to the 
parentage. Nothing of the kind could be expected, and in raising new 
varieties of whatever kinds of plants by cross-fertilisation a rigid selec¬ 
tion is afterwaids resorted to, only the best resulting forms being re¬ 
tained for further increase. This woik of selection by Messrs. Carter 
with their new Wheats is of the utmost possible importance, and it is only 
fair to say that they appear fully alive to it, numbers of plants being 
passed, not because they are inferior to the parentage, for this can 
scarcely be said of one in a thousand, but because they do not present 
some clear and distinct feature that warrants their preservation. The 
mere question of “novelty ’’ has very properly no weight, and a variety 
must give evidence of some substantial quality, such as great productive¬ 
ness, earliness, inherent vigour or superiority of grain to entitle it to 
the honour of a further trial. In addition to the growing plants syste¬ 
matically arranged as described—that is, the progeny between the parents 
—dried grain of each saved last year is also presented for examination, and 
it is very observable that the effected the crossing is stamped as clearly 
on the grain as on the habits of the plants, and, as a rule, with scarcely 
an exception, when a red and white variety has been intercrossed the 
ripe grain is intermediate in colour, so that instead of mixing the two 
colours in the mill they are mixed in the field. The object of these 
crosses has been to combine the vigour of the Red Wheats with the 
quality of the Whites, and no one can foretell what will be eventually 
accomplished in this respect. A brief record of what has been achieved 
is a significant foreshadowing, and the experience of another year will 
be awaited with interest by those who have bad the pleasure of inspecting 
the trials, and by others to whom they will be made known through the 
agency of the press. 
In the short notes following the varieties will be referred to under the 
numbers appended to each set, and in giving the parentage the seed- 
bearer will be named first, the male or pollen parent following in each 
case, that being the order in which the rows are arranged. 
3. Fill-measure x Squarehead.— Progeny: Plant sturdy, fol¬ 
lowing in this respect the male parent, also in the full ears, which, however, 
are fully as long as those of the seed parent; grain superior to both, and 
partaking more of the white than the red variety or Squarehead. 
4. Royal Prize x Enobled Red.— Progeny : Plant strong, and pro¬ 
misingly bountiful ; earlier than either parent, and the grain less pointed 
and heavier. The influence of the pollen parent preponderates in this 
cross. 
7. Royal Prize x Challenge. —Progeny : Very distinct from 
both, and decidedly superior, also earlier ; fine full head and a heavy 
crop. The plant follows the male in vigour; the ears and grain the 
seed parent. 
8. Royal Prize x Chidham. — Progeny: Shorter, and more sturdy 
than either parent, and the grain better than both ; crop good. 
9. Imperial White x Squarehead.— Progeny : A very distinct 
and weU-marked cross ; plant a little shorter than the seed parent, but 
taller than the male; grain good, and more like the former than the latter. 
One plant is carrying forty fine ears. 
10. Squarehead x Hunter’s White.— Progeny: The male parent 
decidedly preponderates ; growth strong, ears large, grain intermediate 
in colour between the two. 
13. Talavera x Royal Prize. — Progeny: Follows the female 
parent in character, but with plumper and a shade darker grain ; very 
early, in advance of even the Talavera, and ripe a fortnight sooner than 
Royal Prize. The earliest Wheat of all. 
15. April x Golden Grain. —Progeny : Earlier than the April, 
and grain of larger size and otherwise superior. 
19. Fill-measure x Bearded Mammoth. — Progeny „• Plant 
sturdy, ears large and full, grain excellent. The cross is apparent in the 
