36 Cultivation of Arable Land. Wheat. Influence of /Feather otn 



It has been fuggefted that grain difcoloured with the fmut may be readily 

 rendered proper for fale by warning and drying it upon a malt kiln, as the 

 found corn is fome time in faturating itfelf with moifture. Sand may alfo be 

 ufed for the fame purpofe, which, after being mixed and well agitated with the 

 grain, may befeparated by means of a fieve.* 



There are particular ftates of the weather that have confidcrable influence 

 on the wheat crops at particular periods of their growth. When the feafon is 

 fufficiently dry, there is feldom much injury done to them during the winter 

 months, however fevcre they may be in other refpects ; nor in thofe of the 

 fummer, provided the weather is not too moift about the blooming feafon, as 

 where that is the cafe the crops are moftly deficient.-)- 



ff& above defcribed, as feen by the glafs in the downy part of tile grain ; and that when the balls- 

 are either broken in the operation of thrafhing, or come in contact \vithclean healthy grains, the in- 

 lects leave thefmuttcd grains, and r adhering to fucli as are healthy, are fown with them, and wound; 

 the tender Hem in fuch a manner as to render the plant incapable of producing any thing but fmut, . 

 It is not an ealy matter to account for the manner in which this takes place ; but a little attention to 

 the circumftances he is now to mention will perhaps, throw fome light upon ir It is known that 

 plants of very oppofite natures and qualities will grow and produce abundantly upon the fame foil 

 where the nourifhment is feemingly the fame. This effccl is alfo known to be owing to the ftrufture 

 of their veflels by the aclion of which the juices that circulate through them are differently prepared: 

 jn every different plant. From this ftriking difference, owing confeiTedly to organifation, is it not, 

 fays he, prefumeable that the fmut in wheat is produced by the infedts wounding the veffels of the 

 plant in fuch a manner as to render them incapable of taking up any other principle from the foil 

 but the fmut contained in the balls, which upon examination feems to have no quality different from 

 the fineil vegetable earth ? This opinion he thimcs is ftrongly fupportcd from the circumftance of, 

 certain pickles being found a cure for the malady. The effecT: of thcfe pickles is, however, com 

 pletely mifunderftood ; for in place of fnppoiing, as is erroneoufly done, that they, operate by 

 itrengthening the grain, and thereby removing that debility which has been long confylered as the 

 t-aufe of fmut, their benefit depends upon the powers they poffiefs of deftroying the infefts above de 

 fcribed : but to fliew the abfurdity of the commonly received opinion in a more ftriking point of 

 view, it is only neceffary, he adds, to ftate, that many of thefe preparations, which are fuppofed to be- 

 fo friendly to vegetation, are in fut highly inimical to it, unlefs they are ufed with the utmoft cau-* 

 tion ;cven ftale urine, which has long been confulered as a fafc and innocent remedy, is, under cer-- 

 lain circumftances, highly pernicious. After he had difcovered the infeft, he made trial of all the 

 fubftances commonly ufed, and found all of them, when properly applied, deilruclive to it. Is it not 

 therefore, continues he, more agreeable to plain common fenfe to fuppofe, that the virtue of thefe 

 preparations confifts more in the power they have of defrroying vermin, than in any ^lengthening., 

 quality they poflefs ? 



* Phytologia, p. 323. 



i Synopfis of Hufbandry* 



