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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ON THE MICROSCOPIC EEL (ANGUILLULES) IN SMUTTY WHEAT. 



Translated from the French of the "Journal op Practical Agriculture." 



M. Davaine, Laureat of the Institute, has commissioned me 

 to present to the Society of Agriculture his researches on the 

 eel of smutty wheat, considered as relating to natural history 

 and BgriciiUure, I have coupled this presentation with re- 

 flections which comprise a succinct analysis of that fine work, 

 crowned last year by the Academy of Sciences. 



" We have knowu fcr a long time," said he, " that singular 

 alteration of the cariopses of wheat which constitutes what we 

 call smutty wheat; but it remains still to clear up a host of 

 obscure poiuts of its history, as, for example, what is the true 

 nature of that disease ? what are the conditions of transmission 

 and development of the eutozoaires to which it is owing? 

 what, in short, if there are any, are the most efficacious means 

 of preserving our crops from it ?" 



Many agriculturists still confound under this name of 

 "smut" very different diseases— the black rust and caries, for 

 instance — and there are very few at present who know posi- 

 tively that tJial which we have now under considerktion is a 

 sort of gall-nut, produced by the presence of myriads of mi- 

 croscopic animalcules, enjoying the marvellous faculty of re- 

 generation, or rather of resuaciiatiou even many times after an 

 apparent death, more or Itss prolonged, as soon as they are 

 moist<>ned with a little water. But it is not the practicians 

 alone that we can charge wilh this ignorance; the ac:u8atiou 

 applies as well to distinguished agriculturists, who know by 

 books the affection to which it refers, but had never had an 

 opportunity of seeing wheat smutty by nature. We feel not 

 the slightest comimnctiou iu confessing that we ourselves 

 were not more advanced four or five years ago ; and that will 

 not excite any surprise if it is well considered that the disease 

 is scarcely mentioned in the greater part of general treatises 

 or dictionaries of agriculture, even the most modern and es- 

 teemed, although the discovery of wheat-eels dates more than 

 a century back, and that these helminlhes (intestinal worms) 

 have since then been a subject of study with many eminent 

 naturalists, who have not said a word about it. We ought, in 

 justice, to except however The Good Gardener''s Almanac, 

 in which we find summaries, iu a few lines, of the notions 

 formerly entertained of this sporadic affection ; that ia to say, 

 scattered here and there, always serious, in the country where 

 it prevails, but happily unknown in certain districts, particu- 

 larly in the north of France. It is therefore in general to 

 works on natural history, and above all to certain memoirs of 

 the Abbe Rosier and Tillet, that up to this period it was ne- 

 cessary to have recourse for information on this subject. 



The treatise of M. Davaine is divided into two parts. The 

 first being purely anatomical aud physical would not possess 

 with agriculturists the powerful interest the second is calcu- 

 lated to create. It ia therefore chiefly of this that we propose 

 to speak to them a moment. 



The author points out the nature and physical character of 

 the pathological alteration, its effects, its frequeucy, its mode 

 of propagation and transmission, as well as the means of pre- 

 Tention and treatment. 



The works of Needham, which have so improperly excited 

 the railleries of Voltaire, those of Baker, Gennani, Spallaczani, 

 Roffridi, Bauer, TiUet, &c., had already made knoivu both the 

 disease of the grain and its causes. Tillet, above all, had per- 



fectly described the symptoms presented by the stubble and 

 leaves of what they call " abortive wheat." But it is reserved 

 to the author of this new treatise to show, by following the 

 anguillules in all, even the most secret, phases of their exis- 

 tence, by what means these helminlhes (intestinal worms), 

 hidden iu the centre of a graiu of smutty wheat, revive in 

 contact with moisture, gain by degrees the straw, the leaves, 

 and the young spike of the new plant, penetrate and finally 

 lodge themselves iu the parenchyma (or pulp), still in a mu- 

 cilaginous state, aud not iu accordance with the scales of the 

 springing flowers, where their presence determines this hyper- 

 trophy* this sort of gall-nut, which constitutes the true smut. 

 Delicate and multiplied experiments on the vitality of the 

 anguillules have suggested to M. Davine prophylactic aud 

 curative measures ; and those experiments, the extreme diffi- 

 culty of which must be apparent to everybody, have been re- 

 peated with success, aud verified by our colleague, M. De- 

 caisue. They l.ave, above all, served to establish this fact, 

 that the auguillules, which are able to resist intense cold — 20 

 deg., for instance — cannot bear without perishing a tempera- 

 ture of about 70 deg. above zero. Now, as the author judi- 

 ciously observes, the grain of wheat, an essential condition of 

 the life of the parasite, losing commonly at this last tempera- 

 ture the germinative property, what had enabled these helmin- 

 lhes to continue the possession of a faculty become superfluous ? 

 An acquaintance with the mode of propagation and trans- 

 mission of the anf/uillules, not less than their vital properties, 

 all subjects perfectly obscure or unknown previous to the new 

 and interesting researches of M. Davaine, could therefore alone 

 lead to the discovery of the means of preserving the wheat 

 from their attacks. The following are those he considers to 

 be the most efficacious; — 



1st. The common liming of wheat, so useful against the pro- 

 pagation of smut and cirbon, has here no effect, and the cul- 

 tivators will do well not to calculate upon it. Instead of em- 

 ploying for this purpose lime or sulphate of copper, which acts 

 tffectually only upon the entozoaires laid naked, they will find 

 a greater advantage from acidulated water. Thus, one part of 

 sulphuric acid to a hundred and fifty parts of water, and a 

 steeping of twenty-four hours iu this water, will suflice to de- 

 stroy infallibly all the anguillules coutaiued in the graiu. This 

 process of preservation is clearly neither expensive nor difficult 

 to carry out ; the wheat submitted to it is iu no respect altered 

 by it, and preserves its germinating properties. 



2ud. It hat been stated, from observation, that a diseased 

 ear may ofteu contain as many as sixty smutty grains. 

 Reckoning only on an average of thirty, as each grain con- 

 tdins about 10,000 larcpc, we have therefore, at the lowest 

 estimate, 300,000 per infected ear. Now, a very small num- 

 ber of these latva; being sufficient to iufest a fresh plant, we see 

 at once of what importance it will be to purge the wheat of 

 these smutty grains, if we wish to sow it two consecutive 

 years on the same piece of ground. But the practice of the 

 rotation of crops is opposed to the propagation of the anguil- 

 lules in this way, since, cast upon the soil and buried by the 



* Or " a morbid enlargement of any part of the body."— 

 Webster. 



