45b EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



or practical truth from facts, the facts must be accurately and ex 

 actly determined and observed ; but few men have this patience 

 of observation. All the circumstances under which they occur, 

 likewise, should be known and considered. Few men have the 

 capacity to discover and comprehend them ; and, in many cases, 

 it must be confessed that, in our present state of knowledge, 

 they are with difficulty ascertained. This disorder is clearly not 

 propagated as smut is and liming the seed has no effect in pre 

 venting it. This farmer is of the opinion that it does not depend 

 upon the manure employed ; at the same time he is in favor of 

 turning in a crop of clover as manure for wheat, rather than to 

 apply animal manure. Some persons confound the diseases of 

 rust and mildew. The result is much the same, the crop being 

 in both cases nearly ruined; but the appearances are different. 

 In the case of rust, the wheat becomes suddenly attacked and the 

 stalks covered with literally a red rust, the grain ceases to fill, 

 and becomes shrivelled. In the case of mildew, the plants 

 become covered with a whitish mould, and the stalks themselves 

 become discolored in various places, and turn black, as in a 

 limb where mortification has taken place. 



I have obtained no information as to what is called in the 

 United States the Hessian fly, from the eggs being supposed 

 to have been brought to the United States by the Hessian 

 soldiers, who were the mercenaries of the British government in 

 the American revolution. I cannot learn that it is known here. 

 The grasshoppers, or, as they are here called, the locusts, become 

 destructive to a wheat crop, when the grass fails in the fields. 

 The grain-worm, of which I have given an account in rny State 

 Reports, and in other publications, does not appear to be known 

 on the Continent, though they have heretofore suffered from it 

 in England.* Such scourges seem often temporary or periodical. 



* I believe there is an effectual remedy against this destructive insect, under 

 whose ravages I have known the most promising crops completely ruined. The 

 fly, from whose egg this insect or worm is generated, appears first at the time 

 when the wheat is in flower. If at that time the growing crop is slightly 

 sprinkled with newly-slaked lime sown broadcast over it, it will commonly 

 save the crop. It will either prevent the fly depositing his egg, or by its caus 

 ticity it will destroy it. The mode is of no importance, compared with the result. 

 The destruction of the crop is not evident until the time for harvest ; and then, 

 though the external appearance may be perfect, there will be found in the grain 

 or kernel a small yellow worm or maggot, which has completely destroyed it. 



