Wheat-growing at Aldington and on most heavy soils was practically killed by the vast importations from the United States, rendered possible by the extraction of the natural fertility of her virgin soils, and by the development of steam traction and transport, resulting in the food crisis at home during the war.  The loss of arable land converted to inferior grass amounted, in the forty years from 1874 to 1914, to no less than four million acres.  I made such changes in my own cropping that, where I formerly grew 100 acres of wheat annually, I reduced the area to ten or twenty acres, mainly for the sake of the straw for litter and thatching purposes.

Wheat can be planted in what would be considered a very unsuitable tilth for barley.  We had often to follow the drills—­where they had cut into the clayey soil, leaving the seed uncovered, and where the ground was so sticky and “unkind” that harrowing had very little effect—­with forks, turning the clods over the exposed seed, and treading them down.  Wheat seems to like as firm a seed-bed as possible, for the best crop was always on the headland, where the turning of the horses and implements had reduced the soil to the condition of mortar.  The seed would lie in the cold ground for many weeks before the blade made its appearance, but the men always said, “’Twill be heavy in the head when it lies long abed.”  It is cheering in late autumn and early winter when no other young growth is to be seen on the farm, suddenly to find the field covered with the fresh shoots of the wheat in regular lines, and to notice how, after its first appearance, it makes little further upright growth for a time, but spreads laterally over the ground as the roots extend downwards.

Nothing in the way of weather will kill wheat, except continuous heavy rain in winter, where the land is undrained, and stagnant water collects.  I have seen it in May lying flat on the ground after a severe spring frost, but in a day or two it would pick up again as if nothing had happened.  And I have seen beans, 2 feet high, cut down and doubled up, revive and rear up their heads quite happily, though at harvest the exact spot in every stalk could be seen where the wound had taken place.

In May, if the weather is cold and ungenial, wheat turns yellow; this is the weaning time of the young plants, which have then exhausted the nourishment contained in the seed, and in the absence of growing weather they do not take kindly to the food in the land, upon which they now become dependent.

     “The farmer came to his wheat in May,
     And right sorrowfully went away,
     The farmer came to his wheat in June,
     And went away whistling a merry tune.”

His wheat was what is called “May-sick” the first time, but had recovered on the second visit, for another old saw tells us that, “A dripping June puts all in tune.”