1800. ] 
are beardlefs. The grain is rather longer 
and thinner than the common wheat. It 
is fuppofed to bea native of fome part of 
Tartary. Vide Bryant’s Flora Diatetica, 
Po 305, tak 
Mr. Ray claffes it asa diftinct fpecies : 
Triticum aftivum trimeftre vere feritur, et eftivis 
menfibus ad maturitatem pervenit. 
- Spring-wheat is generally fuppofed to 
have been introduced into this country 
about the year 1773, under the name of 
Siberian wheat, Switzerland wheat, or dled 
de Mars. It is, however, mentioned by 
Harrifon, an hiftorian in the time of Eli- 
zabeth, though, he fays, it was known 
only to few hufbandmen. 
In Doffie’s Memoirs of Agriculture 
and other ceconomical Arts, vol. iil. a de- 
tail is given of fome experiments on the 
cultivation of this wheat, communicated by 
feveral gentlemen to the Society of Arts. 
The obfervations here recorded agree 
with my ownexperience. The lateft fown, 
however, was the latterend of April: the 
produce is ftated at three and two quarters 
per acre. 
The experiments feem to agree in de- 
ciding, that no advantage was gained by 
fowing it early. “Wheat fown in April 
ripened as early as what had been fown 
the beginning of March. ‘That it does 
not tiller like common wheat, but fhoots 
up immediately from its firft appearance 
above ground. That the grains are {mal- 
Jer than common wheat, but increafe in 
fize when fown on rich land. ‘That it is 
liable to the fmut. That it would fueceed 
in the Fens and low lands,-which are fub- 
je&t to winter floods. ‘That it would be 
worth trying in the mountainous parts of 
Derbyfhire, Yorkfhire, &c. where little 
or no wheat is fown, the fituation being 
too cold for wheat fown in the autumn to 
fland the feverity of winter, frofts, and 
rain, without perifhing. 
In the 1ft volume of the Tranfaétions 
of the Society of Arts, Sir Wm. Fordyce 
gives anaccount of an experimenton {pring 
or Siberian wheat, in which two bufhels 
of wheat produced two quarters of grain. 
It was fown the beginning of April, after 
turnips, and was found to prove an excel- 
lent nurfe of clover and rye-grals, fown at 
‘the fame time. ‘The turnips had been 
drawn, and not fed off by fheep. ‘The 
foil is a mixture of gravel and clay. 
In the Annals of Agriculture, fome 
important experiments on fpring wheat 
are recorded by Mr. Ruggles. of Clare. 
Fide NOV. Vile) Pw (2.4 3\5 Vole Xe De. 199+ 
Seed two and three. bufhels per acre ; the 
produce from two to three quarters. Time 
Dr. Wilkinfon on Culture of Spring Wheat. 
fowing. 
245 
of fowing the end of March. Myr. Rug- 
gles obferves, that this wheat is apt to 
receive injury from froft and dry weather. 
That it requires a dry motldy foil; if 
moift, fo much the better ; but he dces not 
conceive the crop equal to {prina corn, 
unlefs the price of wheat fhould exceed the 
average difference between that grain and 
barley ; or when, from an uncommoa 
quantity of rain in autumn, the wer lands 
may not have been fown. ‘The weight 
fixty-three pounds and a quarter each 
bufhel, containing eight gallons, three 
pints. 
Mr. Ducket has cultivated {pringe- wheat 
on a large feale. He drills two bufhels 
‘per acre, about the middle of March. Ha 
has grown it on the fame land for three 
years fucceffively. He has reaped this 
wheat on the 25thof july, got in turnips, 
and then wheat again in (pring. 
Mr. Marfhall, in his Survey of the Mid- 
land Counties, remarks, that fpring-wheat 
is cultivated and approved of in that dif- 
trict. 
Inthe General Evening Poft of laft No- 
vember 12th, is an-account of an expe- 
riment made that year on the genuine 
fpring. wheat.—-A perfon at Bridgenorta 
fowed ten acres with the above wheat oa 
the zgth and 30th of April laf, which 
produced, onthe average, more than twen- 
ty-one thraves, common fized fheaf, pec 
acre; and, from a trial made of its pre- 
duce, yielded, more than fixty quarts of 
fine wheat per thrave. Seven acres was @ 
two-year old clover ley, cold clay land, 
ploughed more than feyen months before 
fowing. Four acres of the above feven 
were manured with four hundred buthe!s 
of lime before fowing, the other three with 
one hundred bufhels of foot fix weeks 
after.’ The remaining three acres were 
fown on rather light land after turnips. 
The whele fown on one ploughing, and 
houfed early in September. 
The refuilt of my own experience on 
the cultivation of fpring-wheat is as fol- 
lows : i ; fh 
i. That it is a ditin® fpecies of wheat, 
as obferved by Columella, Linnzeus, and 
Ray. Ihave fown it in {pring, at the 
fame time, and in the fame field, with 
common wheat. The common wheat 
failed, while the? fpring-wheat rofe to a 
crop. 
2. That being liable to be hurt by the 
froft, no advantage is gained by early 
‘That though the proper feafon 
may be about the middle of April, yet it 
may be fown fo late as the rath of May, 
as I found by experience laft year, when, 
nhotwith- 



