178 On American Locusts. 



be excited to prosecute an inquiry into their habitudes 

 and nature, which, by particular circumstances, I am 

 now precluded from the possibility of attempting. 



Baleigh, North-Carolina, 

 August 25th, 1806. 



XII. Agricultural Memorandums and Observations. 

 Communicated in a letter to the Editor, by his Bro- 

 ther, Mr. Richard P. Barton, of Frederick- 

 County, in Virginia. 



AS you devote a share of your attention towards 

 the diffusion of Agricultural information, I will state to 

 you some facts, which show that the disease which, I 

 believe, is called, in England, Smut (perhaps Blight), 

 may be prevented by a simple process in the prepara- 

 tion of the seed- wheat. At the same time, I must ob- 

 serve, that I do not state to you a remedy hitherto un- 

 known : on the contrary, that Young (in his Farmer's 

 Tour J mentions this remedy as being sometimes ap- 

 plied with a view to guard against smut. In the case I 

 am going to mention, it was applied with different 

 views ; for the smut is a disease scarcely known in Vir- 

 ginia. 



Last fall, a waggon-load of wheat was brought from 

 Red-stone (in Pennsylvania) to exchange for salt. My 

 neighbour, Mr. C, the miller, purchased the load. I 

 was so much pleased with the beauty of this wheat, that 

 1 procured two bushels of it to sow. Previously to 



