FARMERS ASSISTANT. 231 



though it will answer tolerably well without these. Some 

 yeast must be put in the cask to ferment it. Let it have a 

 little vent, while fermenting ; but close the vent as soon as 

 most of the fermentation is over. It will be improved by 

 being bottled, after five or six months. 



MILDEW. Mr. Young says that when the wheat-stem 

 has a particular cast of a bluish green, it is then affected 

 with mildew. 



Mr Marshal directs, that as soon as wheat is discovered 

 to be struck with mildew it should be cut; and that this 

 serves to prevent the effects of the mildew ; that wheat may 

 be thus cut three weeks before the usual time of harvest- 

 ing. 



The grain in this case will be smaller than usual, but 

 will make much better flour, and the quantity will be 

 greater, as the skin will then be found very thin. If the 

 grain has attained its full size, though only in the milk, it 

 is sufficient; it receives that nourishment from the stalk 

 which serves to mature it. The green stalks of the wheat 

 must be sufficiently dried, before stacking; and when carted 

 in they will be found bright and clear of the mildew, and 

 will make good fodder. 



Mildew is probably owing to a revulsion of the sap in the 

 stalks of the wheat, occasioned by cool nights, when the 

 atmosphere has become cooler than the earth, which in that 

 case forces the juices upward too fast, and thus bursts open 

 the stalks ; as they are perhaps more easily split than those 

 of any other plant whatever. The knowledge of this, how- 

 ever, points to no practicable preventive of mildew ; all that 

 can be done is to counteract its effect^ as above directed. 



In treating of mildew, we mean to be understood to 

 speak of that disease of wheat which causes the stalks to 

 become covered, in a greater or less degree, with a redish 

 substance, something similar to the rust of iron. 



We have seen wheat wliich was in no wise affected in 

 this way; but still of no value; being almost wholly desti- 

 tute of grains of any size worth preserving. 



This disease we call blight; but, as we know of no means 

 of preventing it, we shall content ourselves with barely 

 mentioning, that we have seen its ravages most complete 

 on intervale-grounds, adjoining waters which occasioned a 

 heavy fog in the morning. Wheat should never be sowed 

 on such ground. 



For preventing mildew, let wheat always be sowed suffi- 

 ciently early, as this disease is usually much the most fatal 

 to the late-sown grain. 



See) also, SOWING, for the means of making; wheat and 

 other grain ripen early. 



