308 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April, 
they retire to some wine shop, and after drinking and 
dancing an hour, they shoulder their pack, which they 
bring in order to be in readiness to serve a new master, 
and go out again, back over the Campagna. Houses 
are rarely seen over this rolling plain; only here and 
there some tall stone building lifts itself from the level, 
and sometimes a little smpke oozes from the top into 
the blue sky. What the buildings have served for in 
past days—whether look-out places for bandits, or 
towers of princely families, it is not my present purpose 
to inquire. Now-a-days, a herdsman takes up his abode 
in them, and lives upon stores of cheese, and bread, and 
wine. Perhaps he keeps a shaggy pony or two upon 
the first floor, and a cart. In the loft above is placed 
the grain, and between bare stone walls, he makes his 
cot of straw. At the foot of the building he may have 
thrown a little enclosure about a patch of cabbages, and 
a goat or two scramble over the broken walls around, 
and furnish him his supply of milk. The farm-houses 
proper, at the edge of the Campagna, and upon the 
slopes above, are different. They are substantial, low 
buildings of stone, a square court walled in, and where 
height of building will admit, the stables under the 
living quarters of the family. They possess no neat¬ 
ness, and are only picturesque, as being gray and old, 
and always prettily situated. The vineyards come up 
to the very edge of the court, and are planted as in 
France, in rows, and trained to the same height to 
poles. A rude hawthorn hedge, will perhaps enclose a 
vegetable garden near the premises. In these will be 
seen growing, turneps, potatoes, cabbage, and a species 
of dill or fennel, a great favorite with the Romans, and 
eaten as we eat celery, earthing the stalks to blanch 
them. Caius. 
COLMAN’S EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE-Part 8. 
This number opens with a continuation of the sub¬ 
ject of “ Crops.” He describes at length the different 
modes of cultivating wheat, showing the advantages 
claimed for the broad-cast, the drilling, and the dibbling 
systems. He thinks drilling is greatly to be preferred 
to sowing broadcast. The first advantage is the more 
equal distribution of seed, the next, the greater chance 
the plants have of spreading, and the third, the oppor¬ 
tunity it affords of cleaning and cultivating the crop. 
He observes—“ I am of an opinion, borne out very 
strongly by facts which have come under my observa¬ 
tion, that wheat in the early period of its growth, is as 
much benefitted by cultivation as any plant which is 
grown; and the injury which is done, both to the growth 
of the plant, and to the sample of grain, by the weeds 
which ripen their seeds among it, renders the weeding 
or cleaning of the crop of great importance.” 
The main saving or advantage in dibbling, is in the 
quantity of seed sown; but against this advantage is to 
be placed, says Mr. C., “ the danger from insects and 
frost, and the imperfect germination of the seed.” He 
does not, however, attempt to decide in regard to the 
relative value of dibbling compared with the other modes 
of sowing or planting wheat; but it may not be impro¬ 
per to remark in passing, that from all we can learn, 
the dibbling mode is less approved in England now than 
it was a short time since. 
Time of Harvesting Wheat. —In regard to the 
proper time of harvesting wheat, Mr. Colman observes 
that it has been a matter of much discusssion; but in 
his opinion, “ the results of repeated experiments, with 
a. view to determine the best time, all point to an earlier 
rather than a late cutting.” “ The best rule for har¬ 
vesting,” he continues, “Is not merely when the stalk 
below the head has changed color, and the circulations 
have consequently ceased, but when the grain, though 
it has ceased to yield any milk upon pressure, is yet 
soft. It then ripens well in the sheaf; it yields more 
and better flour; and none is lost by shaking, as when it is 
suffered to stand until it has become dead ripe.” 
Mr. C. remarks that wheat is seldom put in barns 
in England; but is. generally made into stacks, which 
are laid on ‘ ‘ staddles ” made either of wood or cast 
iron, about eighteen inches or two feet in height. When 
placed on these, it is inaccessible to rats, and if proper¬ 
ly put up, will keep any length of time. He states 
that—“ in parts of Cambridgeshire, where the stacks 
were placed on the ground, they were plastered with 
lime mortar about two feet from the ground up, and 
whitewashed, which was regarded as a preventive 
against vermin.” It is claimed that wheat is not so 
likely to be heated in stacks as when stored in barns; 
but it is observed that the “ thatcher’s art is a matter 
of great skill and experience; and as long as wooden 
barns are erected among us at so small an expense, it 
can scarcely be expected that we shall have patience to 
adopt it.” As an “ agricultural picture,” however, he 
observes that he knows of nothing “ more beautiful than 
a neat farm-house in the midst of a crowded and well- 
thatched stack-yard.” 
As to kinds of wheat, Mr. Colman mentioned 
“ Hunter’s ” wheat, which is the kind most extensively 
cultivated in Scotland; the “ Chidham ” wheat, the 
“Whittington” wheat, and the “ Talavera ” wheat; 
but he adds—“ in truth, I have seen none superior to 
kinds eommon in the United States, especially the white 
western wheats. Indeed, the bakers here, for the pur¬ 
pose of producing the finest bread and confectionary, 
prefer the best American flour.” 
Of the average yield of wheat in England. Mr. C. is 
no doubt correct in the supposition that there is no 
country where it is so large, though the product, he 
states, has there “doubled within the last thirty or forty 
years.” He says—“ I am quite aware that, in many 
parts of England, the crops are still small, and do not 
exceed sixteen bushels to an acre; but on the estate of 
the late Mr. Coke, afterwards Lord Leicester—where, 
when he came to reside on his property, it was thought^, 
on account of the thinness and poverty of the soil, wheat 
would not grow,—the average yield is from forty to 
forty-eight bushels per acre; and I have already re¬ 
ferred to a large farm where the crop on the wholo 
farm, in 1844, ’5,—a most favorable season—averaged 
fifty-six bushels per acre. These are most encouraging 
results; since, beyond all question, in an instance re¬ 
ferred to, eighty bushels have been produced, who will 
say that the limits of improvement have been generally 
even approached? All this too has been, without doubt, 
the effect of improved cultivation.” 
Oats. —Oats are cultivated largely in Great Britain. 
In Scotland and Ireland, they are cultivated extensively 
for food for the population; and when the meal is of the 
best quality, in some forms in which it is cooked, it is 
not only palatable, but extremely agreeable. Porridge 
is prepared merely by boiling it in water with some salt 
thrown in until it reaches a proper consistence, and ia 
this form is ordinarily eaten with milk. Brose is pr@» 
pared simply by scalding the meal with boiling water, 
and throwing in a little salt. * * * It will not do to 
say that it is not a nutritious substance. The allow¬ 
ance, formerly, for a Scotch laborer, was a peck of oat¬ 
meal per week, and two scotch pints, or four quarts of 
milk per day; and this comprehended the whole of his 
subsistence. Where more hardy or more skilful labo¬ 
rers are to be found; where we are to look for a finer 
race of people than the Scotch,—more erect, more mus¬ 
cular, more energetic, with more of physical or of intel¬ 
lectual power, I know not; and this dish is, perhaps, 
never absent from a Scotch table, and with a large por¬ 
tion of the Scotch, constitutes their principal food.” 
The methods of cultivating oats in Britain, it is said. 
