POSTSCRIPT.

I am myself extremely grateful, nor doubt a like feeling in most of my readers, both for the information contained in the first of the two following letters; and the correction of references in the second, of which, however, I have omitted some closing sentences which the writer will, I think, see to have been unnecessary.

I find press correction always irksome work, and in my last paper, trust the reader's kindness to insert the words of metre' after 'necessity' in page 402, line 20; with commas after 'passion' and 'exactly' in lines 32, 33 of the same page; and correct 'rest to 'nest' in page 406, line 5, and emotion' to oblation' page 408, line 2.

North Street, Wirksworth: August 2, 1880.

Dear Sir,-When reading your interesting article in the June number of the Nineteenth Century, and your quotation from Walter Scott, I was struck with the great similarity between some of the Scotch words and my native tongue (Norwegian). Whigmaleerie, as to the derivation of which you seem to be in some perplexity, is in Norwegian Vægmaleri. Væg, pronounced 'Vegg,' signifying wall, and Maleri picture,' pronounced almost the same as in Scotch, and derived from at male, to paint. Siccan is in Danish sikken, used more about something comical than great, and scarcely belonging to the written language, in which slig, such, and slig en, such a one, would be the equivalent. I need not remark that as to the written language Danish and Norwegian is the same, only the dialects differ.

Having been told by some English friends that this explanation would perhaps not be without interest to yourself, I take the liberty of writing this letter. I remain yours respectfully,

THEA BERG.

Inner Temple: September 9, 1880.

Sir,-In your last article on Fiction, Foul and Fair (Nineteenth Century, September 1880) you have the following note:

'Juan viii 5' (it ought to be 9)' but by your Lordship's quotation, Wordsworth says "instrument" not "daughter."'

Now in Murray's edition of Byron, 1837, octavo, his Lordship's quotation is as follows:

'But thy most dreaded instrument

In working out a pure intent

Is man arranged for mutual slaughter;

Yea, Carnage is thy daughter.'

And his lordship refers you to 'Wordsworth's Thanksgiving Ode.'

I have no early edition of Wordsworth. In Moxon's, 1844, no such lines appear in the Thanksgiving Ode, but in the ode dated 1815, and printed immediately before it, the following lines occur.

'But man is thy most awful instrument

In working out a pure intent.'

It is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that Wordsworth altered the lines after 'Don Juan' was written. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

John Ruskin, Esq.

RALPH THICKNESSE.

OUR NEW WHEAT-FIELDS AT HOME.

THE description of 'Our New Wheat-Fields in the North-West' in the Nineteenth Century for July 1879 is, from an imperial point of view, eminently satisfactory as rendering us, so long as we retain the command of the seas, independent of foreign supply.

It is, nevertheless, the startling announcement to our wheatgrowers at home of a competition for many years to come of a far more formidable character than any with which they have hitherto had to cope.

The cost at which an acre of wheat can be put on shipboard at a port nearer to Liverpool than New York is, will, with freight added, be so low that, under the present system of cultivation in this country, it could not be profitably grown here.

Moreover, the wonderful facilities for inland water-carriage will for a long period enable the cultivator of even the more remote of the prairies to maintain a competition almost as fierce as that which threatens us in the immediate future.

It does not admit of doubt that, if the produce of Great Britain has already reached its limit in its present average of about thirty bushels of wheat per acre (if, indeed, it is really so much), the position of the English farmer with regard to that cereal is a truly hopeless one.

What, then, is to be done? is there, in fact, no hope for us? After all the boasted progress of English agriculture-and it has, indeed, been great-are we now to succumb with the humiliating confession than we can do no more?

Had a similar competition threatened the farmer of Arthur Young's day, when the land of this country produced but some sixteen or seventeen bushels of wheat per acre, what would have been thought of the man who then suggested to the farmer that his produce might be increased-nay, even doubled? Would he have been regarded as anything but, to use the mildest term, the merest visionary? And yet since that time the crop has been nearly doubled! Is there any more real reason now for assuming that we have reached the limit of production ? Can it be said with any degree of truth that all possible means of increasing the crop have been already tried in vain ?

1

Let us consider of what the wheat crop consists. It is not a mystery, a lost art, or anything beyond our comprehension. On the contrary, it is a very simple affair indeed-so many ears of wheat filled, or partly filled (according to the season), with grains. To obtain a larger crop, then, it is plain that we must have more ears, or ears with more grains in them, or both.

Impossible,' exclaims the ever-ready agricultural obstructionist; 'quite impossible—at least to any important extent.' There is no want of confidence of assertion here. And (although quite unknowingly) he is right too, as to one part of the question-the obtaining of more ears of wheat upon an acre of land.

It is a very singular fact, indeed, that, no matter what the quantity of seed sown, the number of ears of wheat produced per acre is, in the absence of injurious circumstances, virtually the same-about 14 million, the different quantities of seed having been sown each under the best conditions of time and space.

In one sense it is most fortunate that this is so with the chief food of man, for, sow it how he may, some amount of crop will still result. In another sense, however, this property of producing something of a crop under an almost infinite variation of soils, methods, and times of sowing (from August to April) has been a direct bar to improvement, because, until now, not absolutely necessary or pressing.

In the case of mangolds, turnips, &c., the farmer knows full well that there is a proper time for sowing, although differing slightly with the locality, and that, if he has no regard to how thickly the plants are left to stand, he will simply have no crop at all. But in the case of wheat no such penalty of forfeiture of crop exists, and, it being of great convenience to the farmer in other respects, the time of sowing is allowed to depend mainly upon the consumption or

removal of preceding crops, thus extending over many months, as if for sowing wheat there is no proper time at all.

But our friend's 'impossible' meant also that we cannot obtain ears with more grains in them. Here he is just as wrong as in the former case he was right.

The practical question, then, is simply-What does the ear of wheat as now grown contain on the average, and what might it contain? The first part of this question admits of an easy solution. In a bushel of ordinary wheat there are some 700,000 grains, or in a crop of 40 bushels 28 millions, which upon the number of ears produced per acre (see table) gives about 22 grains as the average contents of the present ear.

'Oh, but,' exclaims our critic, that won't do at all; I have seen lots of ears with 50, or 60, or more grains.'

Very true; but how were these fine ears produced?'

'What can that possibly matter?' he asks.

That, however, is just the very thing that does matter, and contains the germ of all possible improvement, for we only require such ears in general as are those occasional ones in order to more than double our present crops.

It will be seen by the table that grains planted singly in September and nine inches apart every way produced as many ears per acre as twelve times the number of grains sown in the ordinary way.

Here our critic again strikes in with "How can that be; how can one grain produce as many ears as twelve?'

By the process of 'tillering' we reply. By the exercise of that wonderful power which is the great characteristic of all the cereals. It may be described as follows.

A plant of wheat consists of three principal parts, viz., the roots, the stems, and the ears. The seed-grain having been planted in a proper manner, these are produced thus: shortly after the plant appears above ground it commences to put forth new and distinct stems, upon the first appearance of each of which a corresponding root-bud is developed for its support; and while the new stems grow out flat over the surface of the soil, their respective roots are correspondingly developed beneath it. A plant of wheat has been known in this way to cover in May a circle 5 feet 6 inches in diameter, measured from the extremities of the opposite leaves as they lay out flat upon the ground.

This mode of growth is called tillering,' and will continue until the season arrives for the stems to assume an upright growth, when tillering ceases and the whole vital power of the plant is concentrated upon the development of the ears. These will be the finest the plant is capable of producing, unless the growth of its roots has been in any way impeded, as, for instance, by those of adjoining

plants, when the size and development of the ears will be found to be proportionately diminished.

At the Exeter meeting of the British Association for the Advancemeat of Science of 1869 there were exhibited three plants of wheat, barley, and oats, each from a single grain, with 94, 110, and 87 ears respectively; and even these examples do not represent the maxima obtainable.

But our friend is by no means silenced, and returns to the charge with 'Oh, yes, of course; but do you mean seriously to say that the wheat plant does not tiller under the present system?'

We are again able to meet his attack with unanswerable figures representing absolute facts.

Two bushels of wheat, the quantity ordinarily sown per acre, contain 1,4 million of grains, while the ears produced amount to only 1 million, or not equal in number to that of the grains sown!

No tillering can possibly take place, unless, as is the fact, many of the grains sown perish utterly, or, at least, fail to produce any ear at all.

Ah,' he says, 'I never looked at it quite in that light; it certainly does seem a very odd way to cultivate a plant possessed of such powers. But tell me the practical bearing of it all.'

Simply this; that ears produced from grains planted singly and early in September 9 inches apart every way, will (by means of selection) contain on the average upwards of 50 grains instead of 22, as at present.

"Yes,' and this time he comes down triumphantly; but, you know, you could not upon a large scale plant corn in any way at all approaching this; and even if you could do so, the land would not be ready in September.'

As a matter of fact, any ordinary corn-drill may easily be so arranged as to plant practically and without unusual expense in the manner described: and as to the land not being ready, it is sufficient to say that there were last year in Great Britain of 'bare fallow, beans, peas, potatoes, vetches, &c.,' 24 millions; of clover and grass under rotation' 4 millions; in all 6 the 34 millions required for wheat. was the practice both in England and sowing the first wet weather in August, this work being performed during the harvest when stopped by weather from carrying the corn. Besides the developed ears containing more than double the number of grains, the mere comparative size of the grain thus grown is such as alone to give 40 per cent. increase of crop.

millions of acres to furnish Within the present century it Scotland to commence wheat

Under this system, too, the improvement obtainable by selection would tell enormously.