Rural Column.

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 196, 12 April 1878, Page 7

Rural Column.

A GRAND ENGLISH WHEAT.

a wheat which, although johg known, has become long famous in the mother country during late years. Mr Bowick, of Bedford, sends lengthy particulars to the 'Field.' We are not awar9 of the Browiek wheat having been introduced to .the Colonies, but, froth the description given, it would appear to fully warrant a trial. Mr Bewick says : —

At the beginning of the harvest I went into Norfolk to see the original stock of this — the most extensively grown of all our English wheats — in its own honae; and> having been either a grower or a seller of it for twenty vears at least, it need not be said that there were points of interest to which I desired to pay special attention. A few jottings from my note book may not be uninteresting to others. Let me therefore notice its origin, character, and the ijultural methods adopted by the grower.

Origin. — One naturally likes to trace a great river to its head, though it is not possible in every case to do this, so many springs claiming to be the true source. With the Browiek wheat, however, there is no such difficulty — it had but one home and one paternity. In 1844 Mr Banham was living at Browiek (hence the name), a few miles from his present residence, Flordon Hall, and ih the fine harvest of that year his wheat consisted chiefly of the oldfashioned "Spalding" variety. (In passing I may remark that it is now most difficult to obtain true stocks of that once , predominating sort. Even- for foreign orders with price unlimited, one can hardly lay hands on the pure and unmixed article.) Well, in a field his Irish reapers were cutting, Mr Banham's eye defected a couple of fine square ears finer and squarer than the rest of the crop, and on a taller, stiffer straw. He carefully gathered and took them home, rubbed them our, dibbled the grain singly in the garden, sowed the following year's produce, and by 1848 was enabled to sow a large breadth himself, as well as to supply some of his neighbours, who were anxious to test it. Wow, in doing this, it may be said that he has only done what any man might do for himself. Precise^ so • any navigator could have discovered America if he had had the faith to sail westward far enough ; but, as a rule, there are not many men who care to be " fashed," as the Scotch phrase expressively puts it; and we are all indebted to men like Robert Banham, Patrick Sheriff, Major Hallett, Mr Scholey, and a few others who have done their part well to promote the national wealth in this line of action.

Character. — On Mr Benham's land, a stiff hard soil, that needs careful watching to secure the right season upon it, and in the dry climate of East Anglia (about 20 inches of annual rainfall) the Browiek wheat retains a distinctiveness of type that is very marked. No finer red wheat is sold in Norwich Corn Exchange j ii is in his hands as thin in the skin and as light in the grain as Golden Drop or the old Red Lammas. lam aware that whan removed to other districts it needs renewing from the parent stock % to retain its valuable qualities. Whenever sown alongside of local growths of the same sort in various counties, I have seen it, many times over, that you could tell to an inch where- Mr Banham's own growth began ; and this difference was marked throughout the whole period of growth. A painstaking grower in Cheshire — a man of careful methods and observation — says that this year he has some 5 cwt. more straw per acre from seed supplied by the original grower, and a quarter per acre more corn, and he thinks in his case he has got an increase in value of — in wheat, £2 17s "6d ; in straw (at least), 15s ; total, £3 1 2s 6d per acre in cost of seed. The straw seldom lodges, even on land that is given to root weakness, where there is fair culture and the land is firm i under foot. It is not liable to mildew, j and will ripen to the full as early as any local varieties in any part of the country I have sown it on the last day of February, in Warwickshire, after swedes fed off, with the best results, only a little shorter in straw then when planted in autumn. And this year Mr Banham had a field ot a most promising look, which was sown in the month of March ; of course it was later at harvest than the other fields. This distinctiveness of character is no uncertain thing — it is real, solid, marked — and there is as much " blood" and " breeding" about it as there is in our higher classes of cattle and sheep. Methods of Culture. — It need not be remarked that Mr Banham has kept it "very select, and that he grows nothing else upon his farm. I looked over field after field in vain for a false ear. The travelling threshing machines have a great deal to answer for in the way of inter-mixture of varieties. Every two br three seasons, and always in a good yielding year, Mr Banham selects a few of the finest ears with tbe utmost painsfakingriess, and the whole process of repropagating is gone through with as much care as. at the beginning. There is nothing accidental about it. The possesssion of hereditary qualities is not obtained in atlay. Many a farmer says, •" What is wheat, just as an egg is an e ß'ri-" But y ou • aever g et any marked type of grain in the one case nor any breed of fowls in the other from this method of procedure. And I have no

hesitation in saying that the man who takes the proper pains in either case is entitled to look for — and to command a price for his labours, patience, and skill. Having sent Mr Banham's own growth of wheat into most counties of England, to many parts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the Continent I can safely say that I liave never known it to disappoint the grower, if fairly tested in other respects. It should be an object with all of us to seek to raise the yield of our harvest to the highest possible maximum. The times in which we live demand this. The agricultural is still the greatest of our British interests. Some have been crying out " Give over corn growing, lay down the land to grass, and import whatever grain we require." Admitted that all this could be done, I do not believe in the desirability of it, and hope that still from three to four millions of acres will be devoted to the growth of our chief English cereal, and that far less than £25,500,000 of money may be sent out of the country for food for England's sons.

I recently asked the opinion of some two or three hundred practical men in various parts of the kingdom to whom I had supplied seed corn last season ; and the average increased return, which is noted to the credit of a good change of seed, is fully six bushels per acre. And yet there are numbers of men everywhere, good men and true, but I venture to say with a misapprehension on this subject, that again and again offer less than cost price for well-grown stock of seed corn with a character to them. Good blood, whether animal or vegetable, is never dear.

Straw, when cut and mixed with two quarts of corn meal to the bushel, is equal to the same quantity of the best hay.

A good chaff-cutter will save its cost in one season. Hay or straw is made more nutritious, but it is more easily masticated when chaffed ; and a saving of exertion is equivalent to a saving of food.

An old gamekeeper told me that mixing plenty of very finely powdered loaf sugar with the arsenic or other poison* was the right way to outwit the cunning rats. The sweet neutralises the bitter. I consider this important. No doubt powdered loaf sugar, meal, and poison form the correct card. — F. F. Mechi.

To drain a depression in a field where a clayey or hard pan subsoil prevents the sinking of rain water and tbe lay of the land is unfavourable for ordinary methods of drainage, first dig a hole as

if for a well through the impervious stratum afc the bottom of the hollow, fill it up to the brim with refuse stones, remove the excavated earth so as to allow the surface water free access to the pit, and standing water will never injure the grass or grain crop in that part of the field.

According to advices by the American mail, there is a great falling-off in the last clip of wool. The estimates in California alone show for this season a falling off of 30 per cent. Last year the clip was over 24,000,000 lb., while this year it will only aggregate 16,320,0001b. Over two-thirds of the clip had been received, and when the mail left most of the wool remained still unsold in the warehouses. Tbe fault appears to be that a short inferior class of clothing is, as a rule, produced, and there is a necessity felt to open the markets to those countries, like Ausr tralia, that can supply a fine class of combing samples to be used in combination with the inferior home product. To this end a movement is on foot to abolish the American duty which at present exists on Foreign wool.

Mowing and reaping machines should be put under shelter as soon as they are done with, and not left under a tree or shed with the dirt remaining on for a whole year. More farm machinery is destroyed by neglect than by the wear of work. Care should be taken to have all the parts well oiled while in use, and as soon as they will be needed no more

in the harvest field, the machine should be taken apart to get all the dirt off. Cool oil will help to loose the gum that adheres to the different parts. Wipe dry and oil thoroughly before stowing away for winter. . Put in some place as free from dust as possible. Before taking them to the field the next year they should again be carefully overhauled and oiled. Give an occasional painting, and you will find that your farm implements, if treated in this way, will last so much longer that you will be well repaid for your trouble. If waggons and carriages are kept too near a stable the pungent fumes of ammonia will deaden the varnish and cause it to peel off.

Mr A. Stephen Wilson, Northy Kimniundy, Summerhill, by Aberdeen, has issued in pamphlet form a record of experiments respecting the product of large and small turnip seeds. Some of the results arrived at are well worthy the attention of agriculturists. The author concludes the pamphlet by saying : — "The general conclusion from these experiments is, that intervals of six inches between the plants will afford the heaviest crop of turnips. It is a fact, partly brought out by the writer's experiments on large and small seeds, that many seeds will produce only a small bulb, however much space they may be afforded. To give such plants nine inches is a pure waste of ground. It is to no purpose that chemistry puts

manure at the root of a seed which is sterile in the property of bulbing ; the botany of that seed, could it be fully read, would point out conditions in the problem, not to be neutralised by any application of manure. More plants are wanted, not more manure. Every farmer may find out for himself the proper interval to give the heaviest crop. This is a purely botanical question. If three or four tons per acre may be gained by leaving the plant six inches apart instead of nine inches, here is a large gam, not purchased at the price of expensive manure, but simply by a knowledge of the botany of the turnip. If the rent of the land lies between proper and improper singling, the subject ought to secure attention,"