234 



FARM E RS' REGISTER, 



[No, 4 



ject, it is farther said, that has not been related ; so 

 that it would appear, the more we inquire into the 

 mysteries of the wori<s of nature, the more tliey 

 are presented to the human mind m a perplexing 

 lorm. 



Now, it is to be feared that remark? ofihis kind 

 are very apt to damp and deaden the spirit of in- 

 quiry, and to prevent the investioatiou of points 

 whieh have hitherto baffled research. This, how- 

 ever, ought not to be, so long as t!ie field of disco- 

 very is so amj)ly and daily rewarding those who 

 endeavor to exlend its boundaries. Ii is to be la- 

 mented, nor. only that the laborers are linv, but also 

 that the inquiries of scientific men are so rarely 

 directed towards subjects of the hia'hest interest to 

 practical cultivators. A striking instance was re- 

 cently given in this journal of the hop-fly {^Jpkis 

 Humuli,') never yet figured, nor its history minute- 

 ly written, while other insects of no particular in- 

 terest to farmers are carefully traced frum the mo- 

 ment they are hatched till they die. it sets the 

 apathy of scientific men to subjects bearing a prac- 

 tical tendency in a strong light, that some imagi- 

 native remarks, and a few loose and inaccur.ite ex- 

 periments, by an unknown anonymous periodical 

 writer who signs Rusticus, respecting the turnip- 

 fly, or rather beetle (^Haltica JVemorum,) should 

 Juwe been copied as important in almost every 

 journal, both in this country and the coiitinent, yet 

 when these were taken up by a man ol' science, — 

 J. O. Westwood, esq., Secretary to the Entomo- 

 logical Society, — and shown not only to be errone- 

 ous, but impossible : the anonymous writer tardily 

 and reluctantly gives in. Similar fancies, iriven as 

 actual observations, from the same quarter, have 

 been extensively propagated in a similar way re- 

 specting the apple weevil and the burrowing 

 beetle. 



In the same wav, the greatest errors have ob- 

 tained respecting the rust and the smut in corn, — 

 the investigation having been chipfly conducted by 

 practical men not acquainted with science, or by 

 scientific men ignorant of practical matters. By 

 passini; in review the chief points connected with 

 the interesting subjects of smut and rust, it is not 

 to be expected that errors can be avoiiled, thoucrh 

 it is of high interest to knov^r that several recent 

 discoveries, bearing on the point, tend greatly to 

 lessen the chance of error, from opening new, un- 

 expected, and simple views of the economy of 

 nature in the production of these destructive airents. 

 It is to be hoped that these more correct views will 

 soon take their place in practical works, instead of 

 the prejudices, to call them by no other name, 

 propagated from one writer to another (or succes- 

 sive ages. It will be requisite, belore proceeding 

 larther, to determine the obvious external charac- 

 ters by which these afiections of corn may be dis- 

 tinguished, as there can be little doubt that some 

 contlision prevails both amonij botanists and agri- 

 culturists in this respect. There seems, then, to 

 be three affections of corn apparently very distinct 

 ia character, though often conlijunded (see 7?ees' 

 C'jdopcs,dia, Art. Smut — Plenck, infra,) namely 

 smut, canker, and rust or mildew. 



1. Smut. 



What is termed smut, smut-brand, burnt corn, 

 soot dustbrand, and black corn in Entrland ; and 

 la bosse, nielle, nielle volaate, or charboii, by the 

 French, meaning, by these terms, "crimpled, 



blasted, or charred corn, occurs most commonly 

 among oais, but is also Ibund afi'ecting barley and 

 wheat. Mr. Kirby, (Zmn. Trans. w.Wi,'.) \)v. 

 Greville (^70^ Edin. 443.,) add rye ; but M. Til- 

 lei says, he never met with a smutty ear of rye 

 (^Dissert, p. 133. ;) and Plenck says, if it occur at 

 all, it is exceedingly rare in rye (^Patholog. Plan- 

 tar. 153.) i^l. Decandule says, that, besides oalSy 

 barley, and wheat, (he does not mention rye,) k 

 attacks millet, maize, and several sorts of grasses; 

 such as jfgroslis pumila, Triticurn repens, j^vena 

 pratensis, and Pa^pahmi dadylis, {Encycl. Meth. 

 Bot. viii. 227.) Kirby adds Fesiuca Jhiitans and 

 some other crrasses. M. Tesfier found, by repeat- 

 ed experiment, that bearded wheat was le?s sub- 

 ject to smut than smooth wheat,* a fact which, if 

 ascertained, would be highly. important to farmers, 

 in districts where smut is prevalent. 



So early as March or April, M. Duhamel, uporj 

 carefiilly opening the envelopes, and examining the, 

 embryo seed, then not one sixth part of an >nch if! 

 length, ibund it already black, though, he is o! 

 opinion it may not always atlect the plants at ^(• 

 early a stage. The Rev. Henry Bryant ( C*a;/sf,- 

 of Brand, p. 42-4) gives a more mitmie accoum, 

 of the early stages of" the ufl'ection, thouffb some- 

 what vitiated by a mistaken tfieorw Vvlurn tli.; 

 corn is what the farmers term •' in the milk," if it 

 be squeezed, a sweetish liquor oozes out, — tlic 

 bases of the future farina, which, becotning diseas- 

 ed instead oi' hardening into ripe grain, grows oily 

 and rancid, ferments, turns sour, and curdhi. — 

 These changes commence soon alter the corn is iri 

 bloom, and may be recognised by the embryo grain 

 bulging out more than it ought to do, piishing oiii; 

 the chaffy envelope by its swelling, so as to cau.-e 

 the valves to stand more widely apart than thf\v' 

 ought to do. This difference in the figure of tin- 

 ear, will enable the observer to recognise ears af- 

 fected with smut at an early stage, before any 

 blackness is apparent. 



As the ear continues to grow, or, as Mr. Br3'ant 

 says, "when this fermentation is over, but not 

 belore," the embryo grain assumes a darker colour, 

 which crows deeper and deeper every day, till it is 

 quite hiack — constituting the brand. " I opened," 

 says Mr. Bryant, " some of these seed-buds when 

 they were most swelled, greenest, and consequent- 

 ly less forward in their proijressive advancement 

 to this sooty state, and found that the curdled milk 

 had not gained every where the same degree of 

 consistence in them. Those parts nearer the sur- 

 fiice were driest and blackest, those near the centre 

 clammy, dirty, tinged with yellow and green, and 

 which, by the microscope, a|)peared of no certain 

 and determinate fii;;ure. The particles stuck toge- 

 ther, were easily separable into others, and those 

 airain separable ad iiifinitum. To the palate, they 

 were not gritty, but soft like the finest flour, melt- 

 incp away without leaving any particular taste be- 

 hind them, except a little bitterness." — (Jnquiryy 

 p. 45.) When the distempered ear bursts through 

 the leafy sheath, it appears lank and meagre, and 

 the chafl' immediatelj' covering the grain is so 

 thin and translucent, that the black-smut within is 

 easily |)erceived. If one of the upper leaves on a 

 stem afipears streaked or clouded with yellow and 



* We believe that bearded and woolly-eared wheat 

 are less liable to be attacked by the wheat-fly than the 

 smooth kinds — Editor. 



