most proper time for cutting corn. The skin is then 
thinner, the grain fuller, the bushel heavier, the 
yield of flour greater, the quantity of bran less; while 
at the same time the straw is heavier, and contains 
more soluble matter than when it is left uncut until 
it is considered to be fully ripe.’ 
As a manure too, the straw cut ‘raw’ is equally 
superior to the ripe; for, as it is an agricultural 
axiom that the better the food of an animal is, the 
better the manure from it, the manure from a stock 
consuming this straw, containing a fair proportion of 
nutritive matter, must be more valuable than that 
from stock consuming the ripe with scarcely any in it. 
But a great proportion of the farmer’s straw is con- 
verted into manure without undergoing the process 
of mastication and digestion. For this purpose the 
unripe straw is equally preferable, as all unripe ve- 
getables are manures without preparation,—the so- 
luble and nutritive extracts which they contain be- 
ing the principal agents in forming vegetable manure, 
—as they not only combine to render the process of 
decomposition the more rapid, by breaking down the 
woody fibres, &c. inthe manure heap, but are also in 
their pure and separate states stimulants to vegeta- 
tion. It may be urged that the increased value of 
the straw is more in favour of that cut very green 
(No. 1) than that cut a fortnight later (No. 2.) 
This is true; but, to produce this increase of value, 
if we cut our wheat so early as No. 1, we have a de- 
siccation of the grain to such an extent as to diminish 
the measured produce above 12 per cent.; while, by 
reaping with No. 2, we are, so far from injuring 
either sample or measure, actually improving both, 
and at the same time gaining above 5 per cent. in the 
weight, and at least as much in the quality of the 
straw. For the increase of weight in the latter is 
not produced by a greater produce, but by the 
presence of a greater portion of those soluble sub- 
stances which are alike necessary to animal and ve- 
getable life—are alike the nutritive part of food and 
the quickening principle of manure. 
“« We come now to the second advantage, the bet- 
ter chance of securing the crop. ‘This is self-evi- 
dent. We gaina fortnight at the commencement of 
harvest. If the weather be good, we can secure a 
great portion of our wheat before we should scarcely 
have begun upon the old system. If not, we can 
wait; so, under any circumstances, our chances of 
securing the grain must be greater. Moreover, if we 
take a retrospect of the harvests for a number of 
years, we shall find that nearly all the early harvests 
have been what we term good ones, 7. e. good as re- 
gards weather and the condition in which the grain 
was secured. When the peculiarities of our climate, 
its general fickleness, and its still greater liability to 
change as the autumn advances, are considered, this 
will require noexplanation. If we look, too, at the 
later harvests, we shall, I venture to say, find that, 
in nine cases out of ten, the grain which was cut first 
was secured in the best condition. As an example 
of this, the crop of 1839 will suffice. The crops 
were late, the beginning of reaping the same, and 
the result was, that in the North of England full 
75 per cent. of the whole wheat crop was damag- 
ed. And full 75 per cent. of that which was unin- 
jured, I will also venture to say, was that which 
was cut the first. In Yorkshire this was espe- 
cially seen; for the earliest wheat was with the 
greatest difficulty secured. In this village (North 
Deighton) not a sheaf was in stack till the day be- 
fore, and on some farms, the very day on which the 
rainy weather set in. The frequent recurrence of 
such years as this, will teach the value of even a 
fortnight better than any thing that can be said here. 
And that they will recur is beyond a doubt. What 
has happened once may happen again, but what has 
frequently happened (as this sort of harvest has, ) 
WHEAT. 
695 
with the same causes in operation, we are warranted 
in saying will happen again and often. 
‘* The saving in securing the crop is a double one. 
In the first place, there is less waste in moving or 
reaping, and no danger of ‘ shaking’ or ‘necking’ in 
strong winds. In the second place, there is an ab- 
solute economy in the expense of reaping the crop, 
which may be thus illustrated:—The busy period of 
harvest with the farmer generally extends over four 
or five weeks. In this montha certain portion of his 
work is done by his own hands, 7. e. by the regular 
labourers and servants of the farm; therefore, by be- 
ginning a fortnight sooner, and extending the season 
of harvest over six weeks instead of four, it is evi- 
dent that these regular servants would cut a much 
greater proportion of his crop—in fact one-half more. 
By this he is rendered less dependent on those extra- 
neous ‘helps’ or ‘ takers’ who, in the seasons of hurry 
and anxiety, fix their own terms. How often do we, 
especially in the north, behold a force of reapers in 
almost every field. The reason is this: the wheat, 
oats, and barley, are often ripe at one time; and 
aware as the farmer is of the injury which strong 
winds and showers would do them, he has to hunt up 
labourers at any price. And, after all this extra ex- 
pense, it is extremely probable that, having the whole 
of his harvest upon his hands at once, he is compelled 
to let some part of his grain have too little or some 
too much weather. By commencing his wheat har- 
vest a fortnight earlier, these evils would have been 
prevented; by the time that his barley and oats were 
ready, most or all of his wheat would have been cut, 
and some of it fit for the stack, and that, too, by the 
exertions of his regular workmen only. And being 
neither pressed for time nor labourers, his harvest 
would have been finished at a less expense, and his 
grain secured very probably in a much better condi- 
tion. ‘To assign a value for these advantages is, as 
has been said before, for the farmer himself; and it 
will not be an insignificant one. For if beginning 
harvest a fortnight earlier enables him to save a crop 
from spoiling once in a lifetime,—if the improved 
quality of his straw as food for his stock allows him 
to plough out an acre more, or to pasture another 
acre of clover with feeding stock, instead of mowing 
it for his lean stock, every grain saved, every extra 
bushel of corn produced, and every extra head of 
stock fed, is a benefit to the whole community as 
well as to himself—is so much added to the gross 
produce and wealth of the country; there being, in 
fact, an increased return without an increased out- 
lay. 
% I have now but one observation to make on the 
subject, and though it comes last, it is far from be- 
ing least worthy of attention; it is, that however 
little, or however much, we may think of the gain 
to ourselves accruing from the adoption of any sys- 
tem, it is our duty, as members of society, to avail 
ourselves of every means of applying the resources 
the Almighty has given to the use of his creatures, 
and of developing still further those resources for the 
benefit of the community at large. When, then, 
we consider that there are in England and Scotland 
about 4,000,000 acres of wheat grown annually, pro- 
ducing 12,000,000 quarters of grain, of which three- 
fourths are allowed to become too ripe—when we 
consider, that, by cutting this sooner, we should pro- 
duce an increase of 152 per cent. of flour, and realize 
an increased value of 7s. 64d. upon each quarter pro- 
duced, and that we should produce food for 1,362,857 
persons over and above what we now produce, and 
an extra annual income of £512,491,—and when we 
consider that this income would be so much add- 
ed to the wealth of the country, that it is equal 
to the proceeds (at 3 per cent.) of an estate worth 
£17,083,033, and that the increase of our popula- 
tion demands an increased supply of food, 1 would 
