The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-03-03 00:00:00

Being so derivative It was liable to great variation and
to revert to • wilder form. Hence the advantage of
change of seed, and the possibility of further improve-
meat. The processes exaclly contrary to nature
produced the oultivated wheat. The beet seed they
Dodd get would produce the beet results, as in breeding
animals; and paying attention to seed emu was see
likely to briog them to the perfection of wheat growing
as attention to breeding animals would give them the
test stook. For some years he bad selected the largest
seeds from any variety of waeat he Iliad, add also sowed
the se slier that remained. tie sowed two busheht per
' &Greet esob,so that each had thesetnemeeenre ; but from
the larger he bat • double crop and much longer ears.
As blowing he spoke of the ed vantage of placing separate
seeds if it were possible From Major Hallett's, of Brigh-
ton, he showed a bench of very flue wheat grown
from • single WM from seeds planted six loathes
apart end a foot ixtweeu the rows, seeding four gallons
to the acre; and • poor pinched little bunch from •
neighbouring farm where Inferior seed was used four
bushels to the sere. From his own farm he produoed •
bunch of very flee ears grown by selection. As to
pickling wheat he said it was only • preventive of blight,
by destroying bad seeds; and warn not required if they
°hose the beat wheat that was not diseased. He planted
about 88 acres of wheat this year without pickling, the
best seed he could get, and sown very thin. If any one
could and any bunt in it, he might begin pickling. Till
then he should prefer paying a little more money for
large and good seeds. For the last 23 yokes be had paid
attention to the botanical growth of oats. He was told
in the clay districts oata reverted to their will state,
and got some to try the opposite process. The wild oats
were covered with hair, and looked very much like
insect.. Ile planted some of the seeds in rows ,• part
same up tall, some had vrry thin weds not 121..) a
bushel ; from the produce he selected the biggest seeds
lie found tbe wilder they were the more bearded they
were—(laughter). Choosing the least hairy as the most
likely to °tellies, he went on, stud at length in 8 years
got a very fair crop. He showed some white at 50 b. a
bushel which was pedigree, and black at 39 lbs. Th,
latter he got from Major Hallett as pedigree Tartarien,
and at the same time he sowed the heavier white oats.
At the base of the lighter daucription there was • relic
of beibtrism--sonie baits; but 12008 on the white. In
eight years by selection he got from 12 lb. a bushel wi d
oats up to 40Ib. • bushel. He had mislaid the improved
sp. &men, but hoped some day to be able to show It
thew. Any of them could carry on the same experi-
ment. Ho found with cats the thicker he sowed the
lass crop begot; so now be never sowed more than 2
bushels per sore. A neighbour who vivid thickly got
small Eck!, stems with a ft w strands, whereas with
thin seediog he get st• MI thick as a goose quill and
msey beaded. He advised them to try experiments,
aid act aecorliegiy. The wild oat, he said, was only a
wilder form of our cultivated oat, mad that the latter if
left with bad conditions and inettection would to
the common wild varieti.s. With regard to barley there
was s great deal of doubt as to its Daigle. Reasoning from
analogy he believed it was a oultivatei plant. It was
more ancient than wheat, and perhaps its orleio was lest.
There was a genus of wild erect growing in Mar.-
poteinia, which was supposed to be the wild form of
barley. He regretted he had not been able to obtain
seeds to experiment upon. He produced a bunch of
barley produoed from one reset, each ear having 30 to
40 grains, whioli is exoeptiousi. He visited Meier
liallett's farm when at Brigdem, finding it by a atop
of pedigree barley, about the character of the lunch he
hsd sbown. It was planted six inches apart and nine
inches it, the rows. Tile eon teas a chalk down, not
worth he should say more than Min an sere as against
his (the Professor's) over Li, yet Major Hellen had
about double the crop he had. Tnis be attributed to
this seeding of the beet corn. There might not be
no
many strands from the roots, as with thick seeding,
but the vertical growth was much greater and the pro-
duce double. With thick seeding the corn rather
degenerated. It was like putting aix children to feed on
she food of mie, or with only air and room enough for
one. He (the Professor) el. scribeel himself as an old
practical farmer, and when going to Bradford Alba&
finding some of bin nelghbourssowed six bushels to the
acre, thought he would try • soak. There were great
complelots of the crops. Ile had gone on experimenting
year by year reducing the toed, and now he eel, sowed
five or six pecks, and got on better with it. He always
kept a little patch for trying experiments, and he aoted
on the multi. In his neighbourhood there was not
such third( seeding as there used to be, and bethought
if they could get on with their farming • little earlier in
the season they wool I have better results. Cirouni-
stacoes no doubt should guide them in thie matter, but the
nearer they could ant up to the best prineiples the better
would their mops be. It would eneble them to cepa
with difficulties in a manner he cold not Lave done if
be had not been an observer.
[Toe leerned Professsr illustrated his remarks by
chalk sketches ou ou a blackboard.]
The Yummier said they had bad the phesure of
listenlog to a very pra-tisal as well as scientific' address
from Professor Buckman, and he. invited disoesaion...

Mr. &Minna expressed his obligations to the
Professor for stating his exyeriments. He agreed with
many of them, but would Tether boy good seed corn
than tr.*e the origin of cereals. He bad cot away@
found satisfactory results from floe samples, but had
done well sometimes with poor seed where his lend teas
In good condition and the season good. As to change of
seed he had not always found it answer. lie had tried
seed from Kent and Sussex betide some of his old sort,
and could not tell the rid ranee. For more than H
years he had sown wheat which be originally got from
Hanta, and found it answer admirably, and that •
variation of seed in parte of the same fie:ds made not
the militated difforeuee in growth, or ripening, or
result. In regard to seeding he thought they must be
guided by their land and the season. He believed a
moderate sowing the best. With gime second season
Imlay he got 16 sacks an acre, and the following year
on the same land with a new Tory good sample only
10. He agreed with Professor Buciansn that over
thlok seeding reduced the quality of the crop.
Mr. Daum said he felt mush interested in this
subject, and thanked the Professor for introducing it.
In order that they 'load nr,t think Professor Buckman
only an ametour farmer, he must say that ho had Lai
the pleasure of receiving several hundred sacks of wheat
and barley from him and corn also from his neighbours,
and Professor Buckmsn's was the finest he ever bad
from the Snorborne distriol So that the Professor had
satisfactorily oaried his thcorica into practice.
Kr. HOMIER questioned whothcr the results the
Profesaor bad üb'slursi would be experianeed in all
alimatea. On the high thin lazda repeated, in the
autumn he did not think very thin sowing would
answer. For wheat he thou. ht two budiela of seed
would mane to crop earlier than any less quantity. For
60 years he found the ranker his wheat was from thin
mowing the more anljeot it wsa to Inight. As to ache.
tiara he found the smaller kinds were best in cold poor
land. I:Lange of cod he thought more productive,
though there weirs some eseeption.. T meaty yours ego
he bought Tartary oats, and one season would have
them nutiob blighted and only 30lb • bushel while next
the produce might be 40lb awl nearly 20 sacks to the
acre. He thought it advisable to sow mops on land
five years apart, rather than more frequently. But
variations of climate, he held, required groat differences
of treatment both as to sowing and the kind of seed,
which only the experienced farmer oould decide. At
the same time there was much to learo from expert.
meats, and the growth of morn had thereby been greatly
improved of late years.
Mr. T. Lcg said it was no new theory Professor
Bookman had advanced. Mr. Hewitt Dora/ wrote in
much the same way years ago. At that time moat
farmers sowed 3 bushels ore sack an acre, but it was
quite different now. He attributed the leaser quaintly
required to the cultivation of turnips and the use of
artifiedst feeding stairs putting the land into better
.enclitic n. . _

Dr. ALDMDOlitaid the general prioolples the Professor
had laid down were in ace rdauoe with solanoe and
elpstistee. It was the same in other departments! of
nature. Thus the pansy was derived from the violet,
and the primula front the primrose. But he dissented
from the Profesur as to the origin of wheat. He
disputed the idea that it was derived from • gram
which at the beginning bad no sort of writ about it. It
seemed te be the Darwinian theory of evolution, whieh
be thought very objectionable end repudiated.
The TrOx-Paternxirr said Professor Bookman 'deo.
*Mod using good peed and sowing thin, and he showed
that to arrive at the best results there was • oorrect
distanse at which seed should be sown. Be had been
much intereotod of late by some correspondence with a
German gentleman, as to the manuring of seed corn,
The seed by a Gorman prooest was passed through
several machine, getting eiff,rent sooting. of manure
till each eorn !mown* about as big as a bean. He
thought this used In the spring would prevent the
ravages of rooks and grab, and might enable them to
sow thin now. He hoped next season to be able to tell
the results! of a Leila. As to seeding his experience had
been is favour el a moderately Wok sowing. With
thin wheat. in this !wonky they were more liable to
blight; and weeds grew more luxuriously in such oorn.
In regard to plokliog he understood the seeds of the
smut were a sort of parasite clinging to the grain,
which poisoned oertalo ears. Go hie farm for some
years smut appeared. Sint* then he had limed it, and
had hordly esperieueed it since. From the Nursery
wheat he had found better results that the larger kinds.
Professor HOCUISX explained that he did not refer
to small varieties of wheat but the mall& grains of
any kind.
The Vlos-PazeiDexT agreed with the importance of
using healthy and metered seed. As to thin sowing of
oats the Professor's argument was opposed to the old
Dorset rhyme--

As runny bunhels an you now,
tiu many quanern you *hull grow.

But he thought the -beauty of the rhyme was considered
! rather than Its truth. As to Major Hallett's corn
; growing he thought the whole oireumetenoe' had to be
, considered. Thy farmers' object wee to get the most pro-
fitable orops, under the cireumetancee In which they
: were placed. Moderate seeding for barley be found
best, but the results were largely dependent on the
I seasons. The cionclusion at whioh he arrived was that
every farm and nearly every field required d &rent
treatment. By high feeding cud getting the land into
good mechanical condition no doubt the quantity of
seed could be reduced. In tuis oounty the barley WM
sacrificed to shel, and thy wheat lands they were not
able to plough early enough from the Dame cause. This
was the great argument for steam ploughing.
Mr. DORDIN had hoped the Professor would have
told them the results of experiments 141 to artifisial
! manure' for corn crops. He agreed with him to a great
extent &I to their seeding. For wheat he began with
: 1 bushel and ended with I for barley 2 bushel., all
through. To oat-land lut year he applied dissolved
bones and nitrate 01 soda, and on part of a frOacre
piece he sowed 2 bu•liels of mood, sod never wished for
a better crop. lie asusliy sowed 5 bushels, while
many did 6 or 6. He approved changing see I. Two
yeace ago he got some American barley from Su.tlind,
sod harvested it a fortnight earlier than the other ;
next year there was not so much differenoe. Ho found
Ulu expense be went to in thoroughly cleansing and
pulverising the laud, and then hoeing the wheat, made
up for the lesser tiantity of wed he used.
Mr. BLOND/WI expressed his approval of wheat
drooling.
The PIUIDIINT thougl.t the *mansion they might
draw wee that safety WY in the moan both us to seed-
ing and manuring. He gave his esperienee showing
that pickling seed open prevented smut In the crop
when the seed wee so affected. lAal you he bought
three sacks of pedigree barley at five guineas a quarter,
and sowed it two bushels to the sore. The resell was
16 sacks to the acre of very good barley, ill of whleh
would be sows Ude year.