— 
a firm and deep hold of the ground before frost 
commences, and willescapeall danger of becoming 
‘winter-proud,’ and will be less liable to mildew, 
and ripen about a fortnight or so earlier, and af- 
ford correspondingly greater advantages of har- 
vesting, than if they were sown four or five weeks 
later. On warmer soils, particularly good dry 
gravelly loams, in hearty and well-prepared con- 
dition after clover, the sowing ought not to be 
earlier in Scotland than about the middle of Oc- 
tober, or in the centre and south of England than 
about the end of that month, and, if weather 
and other circumstances permit, may prove most 
successful in the second week of November in 
Scotland, and in the last week of November in 
the centre and south of England; for if the sow- 
ing on such soils be earlier than the former of 
these periods, the plants get too forward, and do 
not mat on the ground, and become weak, and 
spindle into long slender stems, and frequently 
lose their healthy appearance in spring. On the 
best kinds of these soils, indeed, the sowing of 
winter wheat, even in Scotland, may sometimes 
be advantageously done in spring; and on all of 
them, in some of the central and southern parts 
of England, this date of sowing has come to be 
systematically preferred by a few intelligent 
agriculturists to autumn or winter sowing. “So 
satisfied have I been for several years past,” said 
Mr. George Webb Hall in 1842, “of the advan- 
tage of taking the spring for depositing wheat in 
the earth, upon certain soils and regulations, 
that on such I have abandoned autumn sowing 
entirely. The soils and situations to which I 
refer are—the silicious soils, the turnip and 
barley soils of agriculture, and, in fact, in- 
cluding all the land of our country which is 
not comprehended under the description of clay 
or very tenacious loam. It will be prudent to 
limit so extensive a range by two other prin- 
ciples—first, climate, varying as it does with 
aspect; and secondly, the condition of the land 
with regard to fertility, and the result of ma- 
nure and good tillage, fitting it to bear a crop 
of wheat at all. Under these limitations, ‘and 
they are not very exclusive, I am prepared to 
| recommend the spring sowing of winter wheat 
in any season over a considerable portion of 
such land. The period.of sowing is generally 
the last week of February or the first week in 
March, and the interval until harvest is about 
25 weeks, as the season may be forward or other- 
wise. The produce in this time has been 40 
bushels per acre, upon a light sandy loam, but 
in condition certainly for its duty. The sort 
has been generally the white Lammas or Taun- 
ton white; but it has not been limited to that 
sort ; Essex white wheat has been sown with 
equal success, and similar progress as to time. 
The elevation at which it has been sown has not 
been limited ; for I sowed it last year about 400 
feet above the level of the sea; and a friend of 
mine, a highly respected and veteran improver 
of agriculture, George Tollett, Esq., of Begtley 
Hall, Staffordshire, tried it to his complete satis- 
faction in the unpropitious year, 1839. The 
chief cautions I would recommend are—first, 
selection of seed from good conditioned land, and 
a warm soil and situation; secondly, rather 
thick sowing, as a security for adequate plant 
and prevention of mildew, by obviating predis- 
position to it.” The sowing of spring wheat after 
eaten-off turnips in Scotland, may be done at 
any time between the first of February and the 
middle of March, and has occasionally been done 
with tolerable success so late as the first or se- 
cond week of April, but, when done after the 
second week of March, entails a risk of imper- 
fect ripening and precarious harvesting; and 
the sowing of spring wheat in the centre and 
south of England may occasionally be done as 
early as in Scotland or so late as the beginning 
of May; but is generally most successful about 
the middle of April, in consequence of its then 
combining the advantages of escaping liability to 
white frosts and ensuring the greatest probabi- 
lity of gentle showers for the promotion of vege- 
tation. 
The operation of sowing wheat is so well un- 
derstood by almost all farmers, and has been so 
fully explained, in its several accompaniments 
and methods, in the articles Sowrne, Sow1ne- 
Macuines, Broapcast Sowine, Drinu-Huspan- 
pry and Drssiine, and in some parts of the pre- 
ceding section of the present article, that nothing 
requires to be said here respecting it. The 
depth at which the seed is deposited in the 
broadcast method and in some of the ordinary 
practices of the drill method, varies in every 
part of the same field from less than one-fourth 
of an inch to upwards of two inches; and if we | 
consider how very vigorously shaken wheat vege- 
tates in the following year among sown grasses 
in spite of its being not at all covered by the 
soil, this variableness in the depth of the deposi- 
tion might seem to be very little injurious, and 
really is far less so than most views of the case 
would lead us to suppose; yet, in every instance, 
a variable depth is apt to produce a variable 
vigour, or less depth than about two inches does 
not afford sufficient protection from the long 
beaks of rooks, and any depth which might be 
quite great enough on heavy wet clays may be 
much too small for friable loams, and especially 
for very light porous soils. A uniform depth in 
every case is desirable; and where 2} or 24 inches 
would be suitable for stiff clays, 4 inches might 
be required by dry and porous loams. “ For se- 
curity against a severe winter,” says Mr. Hill- 
yard, “ wheat seed should be deeply drilled in. 
Frost cannot kill the blades of wheat, if the roots 
are secured under a good covering of mould. 
There were great complaints in the spring of 
1838, that a great portion of the wheat crops 
were at that time very thin of plant, and that 
many fields had been ploughed up. Mine were 
