WHEAT. 
yield was found to be 34, 30, and 37 bushels re- 
spectively.” The Hopetoun wheat has been a 
favourite subject in recent comparative experi- 
ments in England; yet, though found superior 
‘to most of the older common varieties, has been 
excelled in various respects by several new kinds. 
Whittington’s white wheat is very hardy, and, 
when sown early in autumn, affords much herb- 
age, very fit for being eaten down by sheep in 
the spring; but it is rather a late wheat, ripen- 
ing a week or ten days later than the Jersey 
Dantzic. Its straw is abundant; and its grain 
is large, full, plump, rather of a whitish-red tint, 
and a little thick-skinned, and weighs about 62 lb. 
per bushel. This has been somewhat a favourite 
variety in recent comparative experiments; but 
it has pretty generally disappointed expectation, 
and is apt to blight in certain situations, and i 
not liked by millers. 7 
Brown’s ten-rowed Chevalier or ten-rowed 
prolific wheat, is an admirable variety on soils 
and situations congenial to it, but is somewhat 
nice as to climate, and succeeds but poorly on 
some lands where other wheats prosper. Its 
straw is long and abundant; and its grain affords 
a beautiful sample. 
The Russell white wheat has moderately 
short straw, and a compact head; and, though 
by no means a new variety, is decidedly supe- 
rior to many newer kinds which have ob- 
tained a greater notoriety ; but is too delicate 
in habit to suit any but the most favourable 
soils. An interesting and most singular sub- 
variety of it was selected in 1833 by Mr. 
Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, “This,” says Mr. 
Rivers, “combined with an extraordinary stiff 
straw a singular clustered ear, forming a cluster 
at the top of densely set grains, making a perfect 
five set, constituting 110 entire grains in the one 
ear, more resembling an artificial figure carved in 
ivory than a natural product. I have been much 
gratified since in experiencing its permanency, 
having the most beautiful appearance in the 
field, growing about 4 feet 6 inches high, with a 
very stiff straw, and the most violent winds and 
rains cannot lodge or lay it.” 
Other varieties of beardless white wheat, which 
have more or less commanded the attention of 
British agriculturists,—some possessing a high 
degree of reputation, most of quite or compara- 
tively recent origin, and nearly all of the class 
of winter wheats,—are Hillyard’s snowdrop, 
Jonas’s prolific, the silver drop, the golden swan, 
the Taunton, Smither’s Hereford, Sewell’s, Hick- 
ley’s prolific, Baxter’s, Brodie’s, the Carrington, 
the Cheltham, Courtney’s six-rowed yellow or 
six - rowed Chevalier, the Chinese small, the 
| dwarf cluster, the tall cluster, Colonel Le Cou- 
teur’s compact, Colonel Le Couteur’s round, Col- 
| onel Le Couteur’s early Cape, the Duke William, 
the eclipse, the Eltham, the Heartswood, Hick- 
ling’s yellow, Incledon’s prolific yellow, the In- 
dian, the Kentish, King William yellow, the 
669 
Malaga, the Oxford prize, the painted-stalked, 
the Paris, the pearl, the salmon-coloured, the 
Lark yellow, the Saumur yellow, the striped 
chaffed early yellow, Vilmorin’s, and Whitworth’s 
prolific. 
The old or common red wheat has been almost 
wholly superseded in Britain by some of the 
newer and more prolific varieties of red beard- 
less winter wheat; but it is still cultivated to a 
considerable extent, under the name of froment 
rouge ordinaire sans barbes or common beardless 
red wheat, on tenacious soils or very strong clays 
in the north of France. Its ear is medium-sized, 
and almost upright; its spikelets are not very 
closely set; and its grains are elongated, and of 
a dull reddish colour. 
The blood-red wheat is very prolific, and has 
for a good many years past been more extensively 
in favour thoughout large districts in Britain 
than any other kind of red winter wheat. Its 
straw is long and rather stout, and is not apt to 
become lodged; its ears are large and of rather 
a bright brownish-red colour, and taper very 
slightly to the point; its spikelets are close and 
spreading; and its grains are medium-sized, 
slightly triangular or cornered on the sides, and 
of a dark yellowish or copper colour, but are 
most yellowish or copperish at the thickest end, 
and are generally darker and more transparent 
at the other end. This wheat is usually less 
esteemed than any of the ordinary white winter 
wheats, and is often estimated by millers and 
bakers at two or three shillings per quarter less 
than any of these; and yet a mixture of it with 
a white sort, in the proportion of a fourth or so 
of the red, is frequently preferred to a pure or 
unmixed white,—and such a mixture is made by 
many English farmers in sowing the crop, and 
is thought by them to be specially economical, 
some seasons, as they reckon, being most favour- 
able to the red, and others most favourable to 
the white, so that every season or any one acts 
averagely on the mixture. 
The golden wheat or red Essex wheat is also 
a very hardy, prolific, and much esteemed va- 
riety. It bears considerable resemblance to the 
blood red wheat; but its ears are longer and less 
compact, and taper more toward the point,—and 
its grains are longer, not so round and plump, 
and more obtusely angled on the sides. 
The Kent red wheat is well known and much 
esteemed in the south of England, and has been 
a favourite subject in some recent comparative 
experiments. Its ear resembles that of the gol- 
den wheat; but its grains are much larger, of a 
darker and more uniform colour, more transpa- 
rent, and comparatively hard and flinty,—and 
they weigh at the rate of about 64 lb. per bushel. 
The old red Lammas wheat, or red English 
wheat, bears a marked resemblance in general 
character to the Kent red wheat, and probably 
isa mere duplicate of that variety modified by 
climate, soil, and culture. It was long ago in- 
La 
