Virginia.—Chaff red, heads well filled, berry red, hardy. Tuscan Bald, from Italy in 1837.—Berry large and white, not hardy, flour good. Tuscan Bearded.—Head large, still less hardy. Yorkshire, from England, ten years ago.—Mixed variety of white and red chaff, bald, berry white, good flour, liable to injury from insects, subject to ergot. Bellevere Tallavera.—White variety from England, head large, tillers well, not hardy, insects like it much. Pegglesham, English.—Head large, berry white, and medium sized, tender for our winters—(all this is calculated for New York State.) Golden Drop, English.—Berry red, flour not first rate. Skinner Wheat.—Produced from crosses, berry red, chaff white, hardy, yield good, sixty-four pounds to the bushel. Mediterranean.—Chaff light, red bearded, berry red and long, very flinty, flour inferior. Hume’s White Wheat from crosses.—A beautiful white wheat, berry large, bran thin, hardy and a valuable variety. Blue Stem.—Cultivated for thirty-three years, berry white, sixty-four pounds to the bushel, flour superior, bran thin, and very productive. Valparaiso Wheat, from South America.—Chaff white, bald, berry white, bran thin, a good variety.”
Preparing seed for sowing.—Seed wheat should be subjected to a process which shall separate all chess, cockle, etc., from it, together with the shrunken kernels of the wheat itself. This may be, in part, done by screening; but the light grain will float and may thus be detected in the process of brining. Two tubs, or half barrels, may be conveniently used. A strong brine of salt and water is preferred, and the wheat, in convenient parcels, is poured in, the light wheat skimmed from the top, the brine poured off into the second tub, and the heavy wheat at the bottom put into some suitable receptacle to drain for an hour. When in successive parcels the whole quantity to be used has been brined, let it be emptied upon a smooth floor, and limed at the rate of about a bushel of lime to ten of wheat.
By this process the chaffy grain is rejected, the smut, to which wheat is so liable, is entirely prevented; and the grain caused to germinate more rapidly and strongly. The lime should be what is termed quicklime, or that just slaked. The reason may be explained. No seed can germinate until it has rid itself of a large part of that carbon, which, being essential to its preservation, must be withdrawn in order that it may grow. The addition of oxygen from air and water converts the carbon to carbonic acid, which is emitted from the pores, and escapes. Newly slaked lime has a powerful affinity for carbonic acid; and by withdrawing it from the seed, puts it in a condition favorable to immediate germination. Lime that has been air-slaked or lain exposed to the air after being slaked by water, combines with the carbonic acid in the atmosphere, and when applied to wheat, being already a carbonate, it does not liberate the carbonic acid contained in the seed.
Pleasures of Horticulture.—There is no writing so detestable as so-called fine writing. It is painted emptiness. We especially detest fine writing about rural affairs—all the senseless gabble about dew, and zephyrs, and stars, and sunrises—about flowers, and green trees, golden grain and lowing herds, etc. We always suspect a design upon our admiration, and take care not to admire. In short, geoponical cant, and pastoral cant, and rural cant in their length and breadth, are like the whole long catalogue of cants (not excepting the German Kant), intolerable. Now and then, however, somebody writes as though he knew something; and then a free and bold strain of commendation upon rural affairs is relishful.
[4] The word lay, or ley, is only a different way of spelling lea, the old English word for field, not used except in poetry or by farmers; and it is one, among many instances, of old Saxon English words being preserved among the agricultural population long after they have ceased to be generally used.
PRACTICAL USE OF LEAVES.
There are two facts in the functions of the leaf, which are worth consideration on account of their practical bearings. The food of plants is, for the most part, taken in solution, through its roots. Various minerals—silex, lime, alumen, magnesia, potassa—are passed into the tree in a dissolved state. The sap passes to the leaf, the superfluous water is given off, but not the substances which it held in solution. These, in part, are distributed through the plant, and, in part, remain as a deposit in the cells of the leaf. Gradually the leaf chokes up, its functions are impeded, and finally entirely stopped. When the leaf drops, it contains a large per cent. of mineral matter. An autumnal or old leaf yields, upon analysis, a very much larger proportion of earthy matter than a vernal leaf, which, being yet young, has not received within its cells any considerable deposit. It will be found also, that the leaves contain a very much higher per cent. of mineral matter, than the wood of the trunk. The dried leaves of the elm contain more than eleven per cent. of ashes (earthy matter), while the wood contains less than two per cent.; those of the willow, more than eight per cent., while the wood has only 0.45; those of beech 6.69, the wood only 0.36; those of the (European) oak 4.05, the wood only 0.21; those of the pitch-pine 3.15, the wood only 0.25 per cent.[5]