1^4 AnJ'wer to the ^lery re/peeling Smut in Wheat. April 



TO THE CONDUCTORS OF THE FARMER's MAGAZINE. 



Gentlemen, 



If you confider wliat follows, as throwing any light 

 upon your firft query upon practical fubje£ls, you are at 

 liberty to make ufe of it. 



The cUfeafe in wheat, called fmiit *, is perhaps more 

 dapgerous to that mofl valuable grain, than all other dif- 

 orders united, to which, in this illand, it is fubjedl. 



Though the caufe of this deftruftive contagion will 

 probably, like many other arcana in nature, for ever evade 

 the feeble refearches of mankind •, the preventive, and 

 even cure of the malady, is a fimple procefs. A complete 

 wetting with urine, or with a ftrong pickle of fait anil 

 water, and a drying with quicklime, I can, from twelve 

 years experience^ aflert are a certain preventive. 



A perfon, in whofe accuracy and veracity I have every 

 reafon to confide, has afTured me, that, by repeated wafh- 

 ing with the above mentioned liquids, he, in 'one feafon^ 

 completely cured a quantity of wheat for feed, full of 

 balls, and deeply infe£led with fmut. I have alfo been 

 informed, by that enlightened agriculturift, John Ers- 

 KiNE Efq. of Marr, that a gentle kiln-drying of wheat 

 intended for feed, and driving it twice through the fan- 

 ners, immediately on being taken off the kiln, will pre- 

 vent fmut. The fanners muft be driven fmartly, and 

 none of the light grain ufed for feed. This mode of pre- 

 vention, Mr Erfkine aflured me, was fuccefsfully prac- 

 tifed in the county of Clackmannan. Both thefe ways of 

 treating feed-wheat are pretty generally known in North- 

 Britain, particularly the former. 



Unlefs wheat is fown within an hour and a Jialf after 

 being wetted with urine, it ought immediately to be fpread 

 thin upon the floor of a granary till quite dry, otherwife 

 the powers of vegetation may be deftroyed. If this pre- 

 caution of fpreading and drying be taken, the grain may 



be 



* The miferable quackery and vague conjeftures often attempted to be 

 impofed upon the agriculturifts of this country, as the origin of /w«i ia 

 wheat, and oxr/ iii potatoes, fliall afterwards be fubmitted to the public. 



