Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/381

Rh GRAIN CROPS.] AGRICULTURE 355 by steeping the seed-corn in some acrid or caustic bath, was often ruinous. The plan at first most usually adopted was to immerse the seed-wheat in stale chamber-lie, and afterwards to dry it by mixture with quick -lime. This pickle, as it is called, is usually efficacious ; but the lime vexes the eyes and excoriates the hands and face of the sower, or clogs the hopper of the sowing-machine, and has therefore been superseded by other substances. Blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) is as good as anything for this purpose, and is used in the following manner. A solution is prepared by dissolving powdered sulphate of copper in water, at the rate of two ounces to a pint for each bushel of wheat. The grain is emptied upon a floor ; a little of it is shovelled to one side by one person, while another sprinkles the solution over it, and this process is continued until the whole quantity is gone over. The heap is then turned repeatedly by two persons working with shovels opposite to each other. After lying for a few minutes, the grain absorbs the moisture, and is ready for sowing either by hand or machine. The season for wheat-sowing extends from September to April, but ordinarily that succeeds best which is committed to the ground during October and November. When summer- fallows exist the first sowings are usually made on them. It is desirable that the land neither be wet nor very dry when this takes place, so that the precise time of sowing is determined by the weather; but it is well to proceed as soon after 1st October, as the land is moist enough to insure a regular germination of the seed. Over a large portion of England wheat is the crop usually sown after clover or one year s &quot; seeds.&quot; In such cases the land is ploughed in the end of September, imme diately harrowed, and wheat sown upon it by a drilling machine. On loose soils the land-presser is frequently used to consolidate the soil and to form a channel for the seed, which in such cases comes up in rows, although sown broad cast. It is more usual, however, first to level the pressed furrows by harrowing, and then to use the drill, by means of which various portable manures are frequently deposited along with the seed-corn. The sowing of wheat after clover or &quot; seeds,&quot; as now described, is rarely practised in Scotland, where it so invariably fails as to show that it is unsuited to our northern climate. It is here not unusual, however, to plough up such land in July or August, and to prepare it for wheat-sowing by what is called rag-fallowing. After the first ploughing the land is harrowed lengthwise, so as to break and level the surface of the furrows and close the interstices withoitt tearing up or exposing any green sward. It is then allowed to lie for ten or fourteen days to allow the herbage to die, which it soon does at this season when light is thus excluded from it. A cross ploughing is next given, followed by repeated grubbings, harrowing, and rollings, after which it is treated in all respects as a summer- fallow. The fallow and clover leas being disposed of, the land from which potatoes, beans, pease, or vetches have been cleared off will next demand attention. When these crops have been carefully horse and hand hoed, all that is required is to clear off the haulm to plough and sow. If the land is not clean, recourse must be had to a short fallowing process before sowing wheat. For this purpose the surface is loosened by the broadshare and grubber, the weeds harrowed out and raked off, after which the land is ploughed and sown. On soils well adapted for the growth of beans and wheat, viz., those in which clay predominates, any lengthened process of autumn cultivation is necessarily attended with great hazard of being interrupted by rain, to the loss of seed-time altogether. Every pains should there fore be taken to have the land so cleaned beforehand that these unseasonable efforts maybe dispensed with; and to have the 1 sowing and harrowing to follow so closely upon the ploughing as to diminish to the utmost the risk of hindrance from wet weather. As the crops of mangolds, carrots, or turnips arrive at maturity, and are either removed to the store-heap or consumed by sheep where they grow, succes sive sowings of wheat can be made as the ploughing is accomplished and as the weather permits. It is to be noted, however, that it is only on soils naturally dry, or made so by thorough draining, and which are also clean and in a high state of fertility, that wheat-sowing can bo continued with advantage during the months of December and January. If the whole of these conditions do not obtain, it is wiser to refrain until February or March. When these late winter sowings are made, it is of especial importance to sow close up to the ploughs daily, as a very slight fall of rain will, at this season, unfit the land for bearing the harrows. This sowing and harrowing, in de tail, is the more easily managed, that in the circumstances cross-harrowing is neither necessary nor expedient. Under the most favourable conditions as to weather and drainage, soils with even a slight admixture of clay in their composi tion will at this season plough up somewhat clammy, so that cross-harrowing pulls the furrows too much about, and exposes the seed, instead of covering it more perfectly. Two double turns of the harrows lengthwise is as much as should be attempted at this season. The sowing of spring-wlicat is only expedient on dry and fertile soils with a good exposure. Unless the whole con ditions are favourable, there is much risk of spring-sown wheat being too late to be properly ripened or well har vested. On the dry and fertile soils in the valley of the Tweed, where the entire fallow-break is sown with turnips, and where consequently it is difficult to get a large breadth cleared in time for sowing wheat in autumn, it is the practice to sow it largely in February and March, and frequently with good success. Many judicious farmers are, however, of opinion that, taking the average of a twenty years lease, barley is a more remunerative crop than spring-sown wheat, even under circumstances most favour able to the latter. When it is resolved to try it, a very full allowance of seed should be given not less than three bushels per acre, and 3J will often be better. If the plants have room they will tiller ; and thus the ripening of the crop is retarded, the risk of mildew increased, and the quality of the grain deteriorated. As much seed should therefore be sown as will yield plants enough to occupy the ground fully from the first, and thus remove the tendency to tillering. By such full seeding a fortnight is frequently gained in the ripening of the crop, and this frequently makes all the difference between a remunerative crop and a losing one. Much controversy has taken place about the quantities of seed-wheat which should be used per acre. The advo cates of thin seeding have been so unguarded and extra-i vagant in their encomiums of their favourite method, some of them insisting that anything more than a few quarts per acre does but waste seed and lessen the produce, that many persons have been induced to depart from, their usual practice to their serious cost. It is true that with land in a high state of fertility, and kept scrupulously clean by frequent hoeings, a full crop of wheat may be obtained from half a bushel of seed per acre, provided that it is sown in September, and deposited regularly over the surface. But what beyond a trifling saving cf seed is gained by this practic ,! ? And at what cobt and hazard is even this secured 1 li; is a mere fallacy to tell us, as the advocates of excessively thin seeding so often do, that they obtain an increase of so many hundred-fold, whereas thick seeders cannot exceed from twelve to twenty fold, when after all the gross produce of the latter may exceed that of