Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/769

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the decay of IVlieat, and gives way to that devouring aiimal the weevil in it, is its too great dampncfs ; this is carried off in this manner, by a heat no greater than that which the fun might have given to the grain. The vegetating power there- fore is not dcftroyed by this ; and the bakers have acknow- ledged that the flour of this Wheat does rather better for the working into bread, than that of frefh Wheat. Though all forts of vegetables may have great benefit from the hoe, becaufe it fupplies them with plenty of food at the time of their grcateft need ; yet they do not ail equally require hoeing; but the plant that lives longed fhould always have the grcateft ftock of nourifhment provided for it, and mould therefore be moft frequently hoed of any plant. Wheal gene- rally lives, or ought to live, longer than any other corn ; for if it be not fown before fpring, its grain will be thin, and will have but little flour in it ; and when it is fown late in the winter, it is in great danger of being killed by the frofis, while weak and tender.

To prevent thefe inconveniencies, Wheat is generally fown in autumn ; and by this means, having thrice the time to be maintained that fpring corn hath, it requires a larger fupplv of nouriihment, in proportion to that longer time ; not that the Wheat in its infancy confumes the ftock of food that it after- wards does, but becaufe, during that long interval between winter and the fpring feed-times, moft of the artificial pafture or benefit from former tillage, is loft both in light and ftrong lands.

This is thereafon why all that extraordinary pains in fallowing and dunging of the foil is neceflary for Wheat ; and yet all this trouble and expence is fo far loft, that if a part of the fame field tmfallowed and undunged be fown in April, after good plow- ing, it will raife as fair a crop in all refpects as the other, only tha't the flour will be in left quantity, by wanting time in the ground for filling the grains.

Poor light land, in the common way of hufbandry, muft be extremely well manured, in order to the maintaining Wheat a year, which is the ufual time that it is in it ; and if it be fown late, the greater part of it ufually perifhes, not being able to furvive the winter while fo poor, and on fuch land ; and if it be fown very early on ftrong land, though rich, well tilled, and dunged, the crcp will be worfe than on poor light land (own early. The new method ef hone hoeing gives both to ftrong and to light land all the advantages neceflary, and takes off all the difadvantages of both. By this method the ftrong land may be planted with Wheat as early as the light, if plowed dry ; and the hoe-plough, if rightly applied, will be able to give it nourifhment equal to that of dung in both forts of land.

The tops of the ridges for the drilling of Wheat muft not be left quite fo narrow and fharp as they are for drilling of tur- neps, Wheat being generally to be fowed in treble rows, and the turnep only in Tingle ones. In reaping the Wheat thus fown, it is to be cut as near to the ground as poffible, and this is cafier done in this than in Wheat fown in the common way, becaufe in this drilled method the ftalks all frand clofe together. When the Wheat is cut thus low in the reaping, the Hubble is no great impediment to the preparing the land for the fucceeding crops.

As foon as conveniently may be, after the carrying off a crop of Wheat, if the trench in the middle of each wide interval be left deep enough by the laft hoeing, the farmer is to go as near as he can to the ftubble with a common plough, and turn two large furrows into the middle of the intervals, which will make a ridge over the place where the trench was ; but if the trench be not deep enough, it is beft to go firft in the middle of it with one furrow, this, with two more taken from the ridges, will be three furrows in each interval ; this plowing is to be continued as long as the dry weather lafts, and then the whole is to be finifhed by turning the partitions on which the laft Wheat grew up to new ridges, which is ufually done at two great furrows ; thefe laft furrows, which complete the ridges, may be plowed in wet weather. By this fort of management, the Wheat being planted in rows, at fix foot in- tervals, the fame piece of ground will produce every year a new crop of Wheat in the intervals, without any fallowing or manure, only by means of the fumciently breaking the furfacc with plowing and horfe-hoeing.

It is a general rule, that all forts of grain profper beft where they are fown at a time when the ground is fo dry that it is hroken to a fort of powder by the plough, meat alone is an exception to this rule ; and the reafon of this is, that as Wheat is to endure the feveritics of a whole winter, after it is fown, it therefore fucceeds beft by being fown in wetter weather, when the ground is not to be broken fo very fmall, and is preffed down clofe upon the feeds, and covers them better. If Whiat were as hardy as rye, and its roots were as hardy and patient of the cold, it might be fown in as dry a feafon as the rye, and would profit as much by it ; but, on the contrary, it requires fo much covering, that it is a very good practice of tome farmers to turn on their fheep over very light land, as foon as it is fown with Wheat, in order to tread the furface of it hard, and then the cold of winter cannot fo eafily kill or penetrate the roots. And as IVheat requires to have the earth lie harder on and about it in the winter, fo it alfo requires Suppl. Vol. II. ^

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more dung, or fomewhat clfe, to diffolve the earth about its roots., alter the cold weather is paft, than the rye does, whofc

them WC ' e " 0t C ° nfmCd b} ' the PrCffinS of * e rarlh * hout It is another general rule, that all vegetables thrive beft when fown on frefh tilled ground, immediately after it is

Out //- beat is alio an exception to this rule, for the beft way tor it is to plow the ground when very dry, and then to let it lie even, though it be many weeks till fome rain come to moiftcn it, and then drdl the Wheat. The harrows and the drill, in this cafe, will move a fufficient part of the around, which will ftick together for the defence of the fmall roots during the winter, the reft of the mould lying open, and divided underneath until fpring, to moiften them and nourifh them. I here is a fort of binding fand, which requires not only to be plowed dry, but to be lowed dry alfo, or elfe the Wheat will dwindle in the fpring, and fail of being a good crop. What is meant here by dry plowing, is not, however, that the ground mould be fo dry that the duft mould fly ; but it muft not beta wet as to flick together in lumps ; neither fhouid the ground be drilled when it is as wet as pap : it fuifices that it is moift; only the lighter lands ought to be more moid than the ftrong.

Strong land plowed wet in November, will be harder in the fpring than if plowed dry in Auguft, though it would then have three months longer to lie. Tail's Horfe-hoeing Huf- bandry. °

Sri-WnEAT. This is a plant very advantageous to the far- mers ot England, who have barren lands in puffeffion. It is to be fown in May. One bufhel of feed will few an acre, and it will grow on any foil. It ripens late in autumn, and, when mowed, it muft he upon the ground till the ftalks, which are naturally hard, grow fort ; it will not fhed the feed in lying, nor will it get any damage by the rain. It yields a very con- fiderable increale, and if the land be tolerable, fometimes no left than fifty or fatty bufhels from an acre. It is excellent food for hogs, poultry, and other animals. 1 he flour of it is very white, and, mixed with Wheat-Hour, is ufed for food by the country people in fome places. The ftraw is good fodder for cattle, and the grain is good to give to horfes among their oats ; but it muft be broken in a mill, otherwife it will pafs through them whole. Buci-Wheat makes a very good lay for Wheat or rye, efpe- cially if not mowed, but plowed in ; but the beft way is, juft before it blofloms, to feed it with cattle, efpecially with milch cows, which itcaufes to yield a great deal of milk, aud that fuch as yields very good cheefe and butter. It is food for the cattle inthc very dryeft time, when all the common graft in paflures is burnt up ; and proves a very great improvement for the land. For this purpofe they fow it thicker than for others, fometimes three or four bufhels on an acre. Martimer'% Hufbandry, p. ijy.

rnite-Cmic-W he at, a term ufed by our hufbandmen to ex- preft a peculiar kind of Wheat, which is very ftrong, and has a large'ear.

It is the beft kind for fowing in fields fubjeclto the blight ; for the ftalks of it being, for the moft part, folid or full of pith like arufh, not hollow like thole of common Wheat; the infefls that caufo the blight fiezing on the ftalks of other IVheat, does this no injury, even though they fhould attack it; the ftalks ct this kind being often found full of the black fpecks, which are always the marks of that infect, having been there, and yet the ear full, and the grain good. This Wheat makes very good bread, if the miller does not grind it too fmall, or the baker make his dough too hard, it requiring to be fomewhat larger than other Wbiat-Qisxa, and fomewhat fofter in the dough. A bufhel of white-eone-Wheat will make confiderably more bread than a bufhel of Lammas Wheat ; but it gives it a fomewhat yellowifh caft. full's Horfe-hoeing Hulhandry.

Smyrna Wheat, a peculiar kind of Wheat that has an ex- tremely large ear, with many leiler or collateral ears coming all round the bottom of the great one.

As this is thelargeft of all forts of Wheat, fo it will difpenfe with the nourifhment of a garden, without being overfed, and requires more nouriihment than common hufbandry in the large way can give it. In the common wav its ears grow not much larger than thofe of our common Wheat. This fort of Wort feems, of all others, the moft proper for the new method of horfe-hoeing hufbandry, as that method feems capable of giving as much nourifhment as the farmer pleafcs, by often repeating the hoieng. Next to this, the white- coiu-Wheat is beft for this fort of hufbandry ; then the grey- cone-Wheal. .

WHEAT-Bird, a name given by the people of Virginia to a fpe- cies of bird, wrticb, after the time of the fowing the Wheat in that country, made its appearance annually at the feafon of its beginning to ripen, and was never feen there before. See the article Birds ^/"Passage.

WHEAT-£ar, in zoology, the Englifh name of the common oenanthe, called alfo the white-tail, and tbefallaw-Jineh. See Tab. of Birds, N°. 33.

It is fomething larger than the common fparrow ; its head

and back are of a greyifh colour, with foms admixture of

5 u f.ei"