1800.T °° > Experiments 
_ Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
EADING in your. laf. number an 
account extracted from the Leicefter 
Journal, of Mr, Aintworth’s method of 
tran{planting wheat, I am induced to offer 
your readers my own experience in that 
way.’ It was not on a large fcale; but 
the experiment was attended to with ac- 
curacy, and the refult was fufficient to 
yprove the pofidility and the advantage of 
that method. Mr. Arthur. Young was 
then beginning his Annals of Agricul- 
ture; I fent the particulars to him, and 
they appeared in his firft volume. As 
that work is not in every one’s hands, and 
as faving of corn is on many accounts an 
object of confequence, at this very dear 
time, it may perhaps be ufeful to fome of 
your readers, if you give it a place in 
your magazine. Jt was as follows, viz. 
In .the beginning of the year.1781, I 
Antended trying fome experiments. with 
wheat, but was prevented. I had fteeped 
and limed a {mall quantity ; but fomething 
unexpectedly occurring to take off my 
attention, it was miflaid, and accidentally 
found again in Auguft 1783.. About the 
end of that month I threw this feed into 
the ground, into.an unmanured conner of 
amy garden. .In the beginning of February 
following I had a piece of ground (alfo 
unmanured) dug in an open part of my 
orchard, and.I tranfplanted it on beds of 
fix rows wide, at nine inches afunder every 
way. It tillered, and fpread over the 
ground fo completely, as to prevent even 
a weed growing among if. It produced 
admirable.corn, and at the rate of near 
four quarters per acre. 
From accurate calculations which I then 
made, I found that an acre, fuppofing the 
feed to be very good and the plants tet at 
the diftance abovementioned, would re- 
quire only half a peck of feed. This is 
the whole of that experiment. 
_ Lam well aware, that the poorer any 
land is, the nearer the plants mutt be fet 
together ; becaufe, in poor land, the plants 
will not, branch out’ fo much into many 
ears, as in better; and if the ground be 
wot covered with the corn, weeds, of fome 
‘Kind or.other, will {pring up in the va- 
cancies and damage the crop. 
Befide the faving of the feed, there are 
two other material advantages which at- 
tend fuch a method; one is, that fome 
fuitable crop may be on the ground all the 
winter for ufe; and:the other is, that 
ploughing the ground fo late as February, 
will. effeétually bury and deftroy thofe 
-. weeds which were beginning to vegetate ; 
MONTHLY MAG. NO, 46, 
on Wheat. ! 109 
and before otHers can fpring up,. the corn 
plants have taken to the ground, and {fo 
{pread overt, that the weeds cannot rife, 
by which means there is a very clean 
.crop, and all the cuftomary expence for 
weeding is faved. 
But many later experiments have con- 
vinced me, that wheat will thrive ag 
well, and produce as full a crop, if fown 
in the fpring, as if it had been committed 
to the ground the autumn before ;.and in 
many fituations where it is fubject to much 
wet during the winter, the crop qi! be 
better in quality, and. more abundant in 
quantity. The winter's wet ufually de- 
ftroys all in the furrows, unlefs the land 
lies very dry, and it can run completely 
off ; and wet is fo favourable to the wire 
worm, -that.in many places half the crop 
receives an injury thereby, which it, never 
recovers. ; 
I have frequently fown iz the fpring 
both the white and the Kentith red wheat, 
fometimes.as late as the middle of March; 
and never had a crop fail, that was fown 
at that time. Nor have I ever found any 
confiderable difference inthe times, when 
the autumnal and the {pring crops ripened. 
From hence I conclude, that autumnal, 
fowing of wheat has not been at firft pre- 
ferred, becaufe.that is the fittefi feafon for 
obtaining a good crop; butfolely becaufethe 
farmer fhould not, if he can help it, have 
too great ahurry of bufinefs in the fpring,; 
it was-therefore an advantage to have 
that bufinefs done in autumn, which could 
be done then. Cuftom has theréfore put 
foring fowing out of ufe, till at length jit 
has been taken for granted, like many ~' 
other common miftakes, that that. feafon 
is too late. 
When there happens a bad autumnal 
feed-time, it is furely no {mall advantage 
to the farmer to be aflured, that the {pring 
will do at Jeaft as well, And in fach a 
time as this (though I am far from be- 
lieving, that there is a real {carcity in the 
land’) as much wheat as poflible fhould be 
fown. ; 
It is a pity that the way of fetting 
wheat (as done in Norfolk and Suffolk}. 
by dibbling the holes, and dropping’ the 
feed fingly, is not more general. I have 
had the fineft-corn that could be produced 
this way, and alfo {et late in the {pring. 
The chief difficulty attending it in this 
part of the country, is to get the people 
employed, who are mofily women and 
children, to make the holes at proper dife | 
tances. They are apt to be carelefs, ard 
to make the holes in fome places too near 
to each other, and in others much too 
far 














