I 
September 25. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
471 
quantity of Wheat is sometimes sown in the drills to assist 
in supporting the Vetches. 
Beans. —The Tick, or Horse-bean, the Heligoland, the Horn, 
and Russian, are the kinds commonly cultivated on the farm. 
They usually follow a corn crop, and generally precede 
Wheat, for which, as they are manured, they are considered 
a good preparation; they require a stiff soil, and succeed 
best on a clayey loam that is deep and dry. Theland should 
be dug deep and well-manured. In some districts, Beans 
are sown by a hand-barrow, as the land is being ploughed, 
and the plants accordingly come up in rows twenty-seven to 
thirty inches apart. In other districts they are hoed in ; but 
the best plan for the allotment is to use a double line, nine 
inches apart, with an interval of thirty inches to the next row. 
Dibble in the Horn or Winter Beans, and let the holes be 
filled up witli the hoe. Three bushels will be sufficient to 
plant an acre. It is usual, in some districts, to sow a feiv 
l’eas with the Beans, to afford bands for tying the sheaves. 
The after-management will consist in keeping the land clear 
of weeds until fit for reaping, which is easily known when 
the leaves wither and the seed is hard. The crop to be cut 
close to the ground, and being tied into sheaves is stooked, 
and, when quite dry, stacked and thatched. The haulm, or 
straw, when fresh, is cut into chaff, and mixed with bruised 
oats or beans, and relished by horses. They may also be 
used with steamed Swedes as food for milch cows or pigs. 
Wheat.— There are two distinct kinds, known by the hue 
of the seed, namely, the red and white, and of each there 
are numerous varieties. The red is considered to be .the 
hardier and best suited for the inferior kinds of Wheat land, 
and amongst its varieties, Spalding's Prolific and the Red 
Kent are much esteemed. Amongst the white kinds, the 
White Kent, lled-chaffed-white, and Pearl, are highly prized. 
If the ground was dug or ploughed sometime before the 
seed is sown it gets a firmer bed, which is essential to its 
success. The seed should be dibbled, that is, sown by hand 
in holes made with a dibble, four or five inches apart in the 
row, and about two inches in depth, one row from the other 
to be nine inches apart—one, or, at most two, grains being 
dropped in each hole and covered with the hoe. The dis¬ 
tance between the plants materially affects the weight of the 
crop. What would some farmers say, if we proposed to 
hoe out the Wheat plants to ten inches or more apart, as is 
done with Turnips, Mangold Wurtzel, Carrots, Parsnips, &c.? 
aud yet, whoever has examined a crop of Wheat of six or 
seven quarters an acre, as at Tiptree-hall farm, will have 
seen that it consisted of tufts of ten or fifteen stems, each 
proceeding from one coronal root, and that such plants re¬ 
quired nearly a square foot of ground to grow in. If they 
are crowded, the side stems are weak, and bear but small 
ears; but if they have sufficient room, all the stems are of 
equal length, and all the ears equally large ; this, besides a 
heavy crop, produces an equal sample, which is more valu¬ 
able in the market. The practice of dibbling the Wheat, 
which is found so useful in Norfolk and Suffolk, leaves 
proper intervals between the plants which can be hoed. The 
great fault of the dibblers is, that they put too many seeds 
into each dibble hole. When land is well prepared, a bushel 
of seed is ample allowance for an acre. Whenever a simple 
and effective machine shall have been invented to make 
holes and deposit the seed with certainty and expedition, or 
a perfect drop-drill, which will answer the same purpose, and 
the land shall have been carefully prepared to receive the 
seed, we may expect to see the average produce of com in 
Great Britain and Ireland very considerably increased. 
Wheat is liable to injury from the diseases known as smut 
j and rust, both of which are considered to be a species of 
j fungus; to prevent which, the seed is steeped, or immersed, 
I previously to being sown, in a solution of salt, or in old 
chamber-ley; to both of which, blue-stone, and sometimes 
corrosive sublimate, or arsenic, are added; and the Wheat is 
dried and prepared for sowing, by having some lime in 
j powder mixed with it. 
| We have sown Wheat broadcast in beds in the kitchen- 
i gai’den this month, and transplanted them the middle of 
March, in rows, nine inches apart, into the farm land, where 
they produced abundant and regular crops, the admiration of 
all who saw them. Peas, Beaus, cereals of all descriptions, 
Turnips, and all other fibrous-rooted plants, could be sown in 
beds and transplanted with advantage. The increased pro¬ 
duce by such means would more than repay the extra ex- j 
peuse, besides giving employment to a greater number of j 
men, women, and children—a philanthropist, doing good to i 
himself, and doing good to others who live by their labour. I 
It is also right to bear in mind, that a great deal of the suc¬ 
cess depends upon the proper distances at which the plants 
are set apart, the habit of the plant—spreading, erect, or 
conical—will be the best criterion to judge of what is the 
proper distance from plant to plant of every crop. Grow 
twenty plants closely together, without room to expand them¬ 
selves, and on a piece of ground similar in size and quality, 
but with the plants at such distances that only ten could 
find room to expand their heads, foliage, and roots, without 
detriment to each other; depend upon it, the ten, whatever 
sort they may be, will be more productive, and of better 
quality, than the twenty. Many farmers also tell us, that 
when land is ploughed deep, the crops run too much to 
straw; but if they sowed thinly, after deep ploughing, to 
give each plant free access of sun and air, they would soon 
see whether the increased supply of nourishment was 
needed or not, by the fast increasing growth and extent of 
the tillers. It is when sown thickly that the stalks become 
elongated, or, as it is termed, drawn up, in a rivalry one with 
another to seek the light and air ; but by allowing room for 
each to expand, the straw will be more firm and matured to 
resist high winds and heavy rains. 
Tuiimrs.—The produce, as to weight of crop, will depend 
on the care bestowed on their cultivation, especially as to 
thinning in time, and the frequent use of the hoe in de¬ 
stroying weeds and stirring the soil between the rows. 
Mangold Wurtzel. —Towards the end of the month the 
bulbs will have nearly perfected their growth ; and then, and 
not before, the outer leaves may be stripped off as food for 
milch cows and pigs.— William Keane. 
NOTES FROM PARIS. 
THE FRUIT TENT OF THE HORTICULTURAL 
EXHIBITION. 
At the present time, the principal attraction of the Uni¬ 
versal Horticultural Exhibition here is, undoubtedly, the fruit 
tent, though it cannot, in respect to natural fruit, be com¬ 
pared to the fruit tent of Chiswick, or that of the Regent’s 
Park, at the July Exhibitions. Indeed, on the whole, the fruit 
exhibition would be a failure, in the absence of M. Leroy’s 
collection of plums and pears (in pots), and the artificial 
fruits shown by MM. Jamin and Durand, the large case of 
tropical fruits in wax shown by M. Humbert de Molard, 
with one or two smaller contributions of the same kind. 
There are no Pine Apples; and Peaches, Nectarines and 
Melons are scarcely worth mention; and the Grapes are 
neither well swelled nor bloomed. The benches intended 
for the fruit are chiefly occupied with cut flowers, such as 
Roses aud Pansies. 
The collection belonging to M. Leroy, at Angers, in the 
department of the Main et Loire, being, at the time of my 
visit, the most prominent, I shall give it precedence in my 
notice. For the most part, all the varieties were shown on 
the branch, or rather on the young tree growing in its pot, 
each tree about three feet high, having, on an average, 
from eight to ten fruit. 
The Plums were twelve in number, comprising the Seine 
Claude doree, Seine Claude violetle, Jacinthe (Hyacinth), a 
small pearl-like variety. Blue de Belgique, Nelson’s Victory, 
pretty red, La Petite Mirabelle , a small oval yellow sort, 
very abundant at present in the markets ; Quetschc d'Italic 
in the way of Jacinthe; Pond’s Seedling, a beautiful red 
variety of oblong form, and about two inches in length. 
This is perhaps more common in gardens here than it is in 
England. De Jerusalem, something like la Prune de Mousier, 
in form and colour, that is to say, round, dark red, and well 
bloomed. Dame Aubert, a fine, yellow variety, in the way of 
Pond’s Seedling, but scarcely so large. Is it because they 
cannot be ripened in time for the July exhibition that plums 
are so limited in variety at Chiswick and Regent’s Park ? 
As yet, I have not seen our favourite yellow sort, Coe’s 
Golden Drop, but its merits are well known here and in 
Belgium, 
•f 
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