TRITICUM aestivum. SPRING WHEAT.--Wheat is a grain well known in most
countries in Europe. It has been in cultivation for many ages. This
species was introduced some years ago from the Barbary coast, and has
been found very beneficial for sowing in the spring, when it often
produces a large crop. It takes a shorter time to come to maturity than
the other sorts; and as it is a more profitable crop to the farmer on
good soils than Barley, it is frequently sown after Turnips are over.
This has, perhaps, been one of the best improvements in Grain husbandry
that was ever introduced, as it gives the grower great advantages which
he could not have under the common culture of Wheat at the usual
seed-time. This is little different in appearance from the Common White
Wheat. But there was a small variety of it with rounder grains sent to
the Board of Agriculture from the Cape of Good Hope about the year 1801,
of which I saved a small quantity of seeds which was distributed among
the members; and I have lately seen a sample of it in the hands of a
gentleman in Devonshire, who speaks very highly of it as producing a
large crop in a short time, and that the flower was so much esteemed,
that the millers gave him a higher price for it than the finest samples
at market of the other kinds would sell for. I believe this variety is
very scarce.
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