164 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. X. 



out of twenty acres sown with the same grain — not inoculated — 



not one smutty ear was found*. 

 Mr. Samuel Taylor, jun., of Ditchingham near Bungay, also rubbed a 

 number of grains of wheat with the powder from some smutty ears, having 

 first moistened them to make the powder adhere : one half of those were 

 then washed, wetted with chamber-lye, and limed. A similar quantity of 

 dry wheat was then procured ; the whole being dibbled, each parcel by itself. 

 The produce of the infected u'heat was above three-fourths smut: the same 

 infected wheat steeped and limed, perfectly sound : the dry wheat, uniri' 

 fected, all sound t- 



Similar experiments have been repeatedly made, and generally found in 

 favour of the pickled seed when properly made ; for although some have 

 proved unsuccessful, yet that probably was occasioned either by the ineffici- 

 ency of the operation, or by contagion having been again imparted by a 

 communication with diseased grain. It is also not impossible that some of 

 the infected grains may not be thoroughly penetrated by the solution, and 

 thus the disease may be in some cases partially continued. The seed 

 should be in a perfectly dry state when immersed in the pickle ; and it should 

 not therefore be previously washed, unless it be afterwards carefully dried. 

 The following table, compiled by the same gentleman from the results, 

 exhibits in a striking manner the infectious nature and degrees of smut upon 

 different sorts of wheat, as well as the beneficial effects of steeping. 



I. Wheat when merely put, without any preparation, into a bag which 

 had held smutted wheat : — 



Old wheat 1 grain in 30 smutted. 



New Kentish red ... 1 do. „ 20 do. 



Yellow Lammas do. . . 1 do. „ 3 do. 



Spring wheat 1 do. >, 2 do. 



II. Wheat when moistened and rubbed with smut powder : — 



Old red wheat ..... 1 grain in 7 smutted. 



New ditto 1 do. ,, 6 do. 



Ditto, Kiln-dried .... 1 do. ,,8 do. 



White wheat, ditto ... 1 do. „ 3 do. 



Yellow Lammas ditto ... 1 do. ,, 7 do. 



Spring wheat ditto .... 8 do. „ 10 do. 



III. Treated as in the last experiment, but steeped previous to sowing in a 

 solution of blue vitriol and chamber-lye : — 



Old wheat 1 grain in 2000 smutted. 



New ditto I do. „ clean 



Ditto, Kiln-dried .... 1 do. „ do. 



White wheat, ditto ... 1 do. „ do. 



Yellow Lammas, ditto . . 3 grains „ 2000 smutted. 



Some steeps, combined with oil and the drainings of dunghills, have been 

 highly praised as stimulating the germination of the seed ; but experiments 

 which have been carefully made to ascertain the results, have proved that 

 all stimulation, thus unnaturally produced, occasions a counteracting effect 

 on the future growth of the plant. It may also be observed, that the notion 

 of any stimulus being given to the germination of corn by the mere applica- 

 tion of any substance — independently of its power as a liquid steep — must 

 be fallacious ; for the shoot receives its first nourishment from the grain 

 itself, and when it begins to seek nutriment by means of its roots, these are 



'■' Farmers' Mag. vol. ix. p. 404. 



t Papers of the Bath and W. of England Agric, Soc. vol. xvi art. i. See also in that 

 paper numerous experiments to the same effect. 



