1801.] 
I alfo meditate a Necv Tranflation of Ho- 
MER into BLANK VERSE. 
Bury St. Edmonds, Iam, your’s, &c. 
.23d Dec. 1800. Care Lorrr. 
—_— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ye, 
LETTER appeared fome months 
back in your Magazine from a Staf- 
fordthire Farmer, apparently calling on 
me for a reply. I fhould bave anfwer- 
ed it long fince; but a multitude of 
prefling avocations engaging my whole 
attention, it flipped my memory. I re- 
quelt that he will accept my apology ; and 
as the bufinefs to which it relates is the 
bufinels of /pring, my reply comes now 
foon enough for every valuable purpofe. 
Your Correfpondent’s inquiries are in 
¢onfequence of a letter of mine in your 
Magazine fer April latt, refpeéting an ex- 
periment, which T had tried with fuccefs, 
of tranfplantiog wheat. He afks whether 
February be the only proper month for 
tranfpiantation. Idid netiay that. Fe- 
bruary was the month in which my wheat 
was tranfplanted, and therefore the only 
month concerning which I can {peak from 
experience: but I have not a doubt that 
March or Apri! may be as proper, efpe- 
cially if the land is not in fit condition 
earlier in the fpring. And I judge fo, 
becauie I have mytelf fows wheat as late 
as the middle of March with full fuc- 
ce(s, and have heard cf others who have 
put in the feed as late as the beginning of 
April, and had fine crops. If any feafon 
is foon enough for fowing, I fhould think 
it muft be foon enough for tranfplanting, 
becaufe the plants have already attained 
confiderable growth. 
-I would always recommend to perfons 
who cannot afford to bear a little lofs, to 
, try experiments (how plaufible fcever) on 
a fmall{cale: if your correfpondent is of 
that defcription, a {mall experiment can- 
not burt him. If he is a large farmer, I 
am fure he may venture more boldly: and 
I thould advife him to try a fmall planta- 
tion next {pring as foon.as he can find the 
land in fit condition: and if that fhould 
happen to be early, to try another plantas 
tion in April, by which he may a{certain 
to a cértainty what he wifhes to, know; 
and even more, for he may learn what 
time is the /ate/? that will do, and may, 
in future years, reap a large advantage. 
I think tranfplanting may be executed 
extenfively, by a ‘well-contrived) method. 
Suppofe, for inftance, when the land 4s 
ready for the lat ploughing, -a' quantity 
_ of forward plants be ploughed up from 
fome lightith foil fown in autumn,. they 
Dr. Pike on Tranfplanting Wheat. | 5 
may then be picked out of the loofe earth 
by women or children, and fet, ftanding 
upright, clofe together in a place ap-~ 
pointed; then, when the land is to be 
ploughed, provide hands enough to fol- 
low the plough, and put down the plants 
at proper diftances. The next turn of 
the plough will cover up that firf row, 
and make the furrow for the fecond; and 
fo on through the field. The planters 
fhould have each a little bafket to hang 
on the left arm with the plants ; and chil- 
dren fhould be conftantly employed with - 
other batkets to fetch the plants from the 
heap. As foon as any one has emptied 
her bafket, let her give itto the child that 
attends her, and take the. full one. In 
this way, with a little contrivance, they 
may go as faft as the plough; and if the 
land be fuch as to require or allow it, a 
light reller may be afterwards pafled over 
it, to clofe the earth well to the roots. 
While I am on the fubject of wheat, I 
am inclined to take notice of a very ufeful 
letter from Dr. Wilkinfon, in a late Num- 
ber of your Magazine. The Doétor 
{peaks largely and particulariy on. the 
Triticum Afivum, or {pring wheat as 
fome call it, and which he thinks to. be 
the fame as the Siberian wheat mentioned 
by Varlo and fome others. And he feems 
to confider this as the ftteft for {pring 
culture. > 
In fome northern parts of this ifland, 
where the common wheat is generally 
found to fail when fown in pring, it may 
moft probably be fo; but I can affure the 
Doétor and the public, that I have re- 
peatedly fown both the common red or 
Kertifh wheat, and the white wheat, iz 
the fpring, and had excellent crops in re- 
turn. 
As from Dr. Wilkinfon’s account of 
the Triticum Aittivam, although it has 
fome good advantages attending it, it does 
not appear toy be, on the whole, a pre- 
ferable fort; I. fhould recommend the 
common forts for {pring fowing, except 
when the fowing is very late. ‘Ihe mid- 
dle of May, which would moft probably 
be much too late for them, appears, by 
that gentleman’s experience, to be not too 
late tor this fort. 
Iam, Sir, your’s, &c, 
Dec. 4, 1800. J. B. Pike. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
YN your Magazine for Auguft laf, p. 
Jt 33, I made an obfervation on the ufe 
of the nominative cafe before the infinitive 
mood in the Greek Janguage. I with to 
fuggeft, that the cale there fpecified, 
| namely 
