80 On Smut in Wheat. 



seed, and viceversa^ it will confirm the general opinion, 

 of the importance of selecting choice wheat for seed, 

 agreeably to the judgment of the most eminent faimers. 

 If so; it will next be worthy of their inquiry, whether the 

 frequency of smut, and mildew, may not be generally 

 traced, in the first instance, to vitiated or imperfect 

 seed, or that which ripens late in the season ; the vege- 

 tative principle of which, being feeble, predisposes the 

 A^'heat to these diseases ; while early, sound and healthy 

 seeds vegetate vigorously, and resist intruding insects, 

 and parasitical germs, till the critical period be past ; 

 after which they are secure. 



Whence is it, that the white efflorescence called' 

 mouldiness, overspreads the surface of dead plants, 

 while all the living ones, contiguous to them, m holl}^ es- 

 cape ? Is it not the vegetative, or vital principle which 

 protects the latter? and the loss of it, which exposes the 

 the former to decay, and to fall a prey to the enemy?* 

 But the disease, called mouldiness, if narrowly examin- 

 ed, will, it is presumed be found nearly akin to mildew, 

 and perhaps turn out to be, only another species of 

 mushroom, belonging to the parasitical family of plants. 



* Crops of grain in a moist state, or containing (as oiten 

 happens) a mixture of weeds, when smothered close in a barn, 

 and deprived oi proper ventilation, soon exceed the point of 

 healthy fermentation, and contract not only, the disease of 

 mouldiness, but are peculiarly incident to depredations from 

 mildew, moth, and vermin. Might not ricks of grain, well 

 secured, in the open air, in this, as in other countries, super- 

 cede the use of large expensive barns, and at the same time, 

 preserve the grain more completely, from these destructive 

 incidents ? 



