On Smut in JVheat. 67 



do I recollect, in those samples I have seen, that the 

 black powder emitted any oiFensive odour ; though in 

 warm, moist seasons, when a higher temperature dis- 

 poses more powerfully to putrescency, the disease may 

 become more general, and assume a more putrid or vi- 

 rulent nature. 



Like the mildew, it is most prevalent in low grounds 

 and in a damp or foggy season, but never produces 

 such extensive damage as the mildew which infests 

 whole fields of grain and grasses. For the destructive 

 effects of the mildew have frequently been experienced 

 not only in the United States, and the British isles, but 

 also in Germany, France, Italy, Sicily, and even in New 

 South Wales, though its cause has never yet been 

 clearly developed. It has long been a received notion, 

 that wheat cannot thrive near the barberry bush, and 

 as that plant has a yellow flower, and has been found li- 

 able to the mildew, it has been accused of first propa- 

 gating the disease to the wheat. But the disease infests 

 the grain where the barberry shrub is unknown, and 

 wheat has been sown under the shade of the barberry 

 without being injured. This experiment is said to have 

 been carefully performed a few years ago by a farmer 

 neai' Edinburgh, and considered as decisive.* How- 

 ever, before we undertake to exculpate the barberry tree 

 from the general odium under which it has long suffer- 

 ed, it will be very proper to repeat the experiment in 

 different climates, and under different aspects. The 

 noxious quality imputed to the barberry tree has alrea- 

 dy indeed caused the plant, in many places, to be to- 



* Edinburgh Farmers Magazine, No. 10. 



