injurious effects of quicklime upon
grass land which you anticipate in your paper, but the contrary,
and the more caustic it is the more beneficial is its action, so
far as I can judge from my own experiments; and it is my practice
in liming grass land to spread it as soon as I can get it into the
state of flour. I shall be glad to hear the result of your
electrical experiment--at present I am rather sceptical on the
subject.

P.S.--Am I to suppose that you have abandoned the idea of manuring
an acre of wheat for thirteen shillings?

* * * * *

THE CULTIVATION OF WHEAT.

_October 1st_, 1852.

To the Editor of the "Manchester Guardian."

The increasing quantity of agricultural produce consumed in this
country makes it desirable that the cultivation of the land should
be carried to the highest point consistent with profit; and the
increasing scarcity of agricultural labourers will shortly render
it difficult for the farmers in some districts to gather in their
crops. It therefore becomes increasingly desirable that every
mechanical contrivance which will facilitate their doing so should
be made as perfect as possible; and also that the crops themselves
should be so cultivated as to make these mechanical aids to work
to the greatest advantage.

But it has been a difficult matter (at least in the wet climate of
Lancashire) to ascertain how far it is prudent to manure for
wheat, for in unfavourable seasons the plant runs so much to straw
that it is liable to lodge, and become mildewed; in which cases
the manure is not only wasted, but becomes positively injurious,
as appears to be the case in the South of England this year, and
as was also the case in the North in 1845, when every shilling
expended in manuring the wheat crops of that year made the crop at
least a shilling worse than if no manure had been applied.

But if we could find a wheat so short in the straw that it would
bear heavy manuring without being lodged, wheat-growing would be a
far less hazardous occupation than it is at present, and we might
confidently calculate on a far greater production than we can now.

The following appear to me to be some of the advantages of growing
a short-strawed wheat:--

1st. It will bear highly manuring without lodging, and with much
less liability to mildew, than a long-strawed wheat.

2nd. The proportion of grain to straw is greater in short than in
long-strawed wheat.

3rd. As it very rarely lodges, it will