CIi.X.] STEEPING. 163 



friend found his crops in llie course of his further experiments to be free 

 from contagion, exactly in proportion to the quantity of sulphate which 

 he used*;'' and remarks to nearly the same eft'ect have been made in some 

 foreign treatises upon the same subject f. This, however, appears to us 

 to be rather incautiously stated ; for other experiments have been made, 

 from which it would appear that although blue vitriol may be an antidote 

 against smut, yet, if the solution be made much stronger than that already 

 described, it has the effect of greatly injuring the vegetation of the seed J. 



A portion of the sulphate has however been used with good effect to give 

 additional strength to brine, and to chamber- lye: two pounds of it being 

 used to as much urine as will wet twelve bushels of vvheat§. It has indeed 

 been satisfactorily proved, by numberless experiments, that a steep either of 

 brine made of a sufficient strength, or chamber-lye, but more especially if 

 either be mixed with a moderate solution of copperas, is efficacious in pre- 

 venting smut, even if the seed-corn were previously smutty. Various other 

 preparations of vitriol, nitre, sulphur, and arsenic, have been also tried, in 

 some instances with good effect; and a solution of lib. of arsenic in thirty 

 gallons of water, has been recommended as destructive of insects and 

 field-mice. When made of only that strength, it however has not the 

 desired effect; and if made much stronger, it has been thought that its 

 poisonous qualities might prove dangerous : the subject however appears to 

 merit inquiry. 



It is stated in the Northumberland Report, that Messieurs Culley, who 

 grow annually from 400 to 600 acres of wheat, have had only one 

 instance of smut in a practice of more than forty years, and this was when 

 the seed was not steeped. In experiments tried by Mr. Bailey of Chilling- 

 ham on seed, in which were a few balls of smut — one-third of which was 

 steeped in chamber-lye and limed; one third steeped in chamber lye, dried 

 and not limed ; and the remainder sown without either steeping or liming ; 

 the result was that the seed which weispickled and limed, as well as that which 

 w&s pickled and not limed, was nearly free from smut ; but that which was 

 unpickled had smutty ears in abundance ||. 



Two experiments are recorded by Mr. Blaikie as having been made by 

 him at Lord Chesterfield's farm of Bradley-hall in Derbyshire: — 



The first was on a peck of very smutty wheat, one- half of which was 

 sown in the state in which it was bought, and the other half washed as 

 clean as possible in three waters, and then steeped during two hours in 

 brine strong enough to carry a new-laid egg, and dashed over with 

 lime : the result w'as, that two-thirds of the wheat grown from the un- 

 washed seed was smutty ; while that produced by the limed seed was 

 a full crop, without a single ear of smut. 

 The second was made upon some very fine wheat perfectly free from 

 smut. A quart of this was washed in three waters in order to secure 

 its thorough cleanliness ; it was then put for two days into a bag in 

 which there was some of the black dust of smutty grain ; and the re- 

 sult was, that a large proportion of wheat thus sown was smutty, while 



* Code of Agric. 3rd edition, App. p. 82. 



f See " Instruction pratique sur la Carie, ou Pourrides B/es," par M. Benedict Prevost 

 de Montauban ; id. par M. Charles Lullin de Geneve ; et Memoire de M. P. A. Fontanel 

 de Montauban. 



I See some experiments to that effect in the Farmers' Mag. vol. xxii. p. 411. 

 § Surv. of Derbysh. vol. ii. p. 116. 



II 3rd edit. Surv. of Northumberland, no<e, p. 73. 



M 2 



