1S37] 



FAR M E R S ' R E (J I S T E R 



835 



green, or dry and withered at the tip, it is highly 

 prohiihle th;it the ear will be smutty. M. Tessier 

 savs that this character never deceived him. — 

 (.Ualades des Graim,p. 296.) When the chaH' 

 bursiis, as it speedily does, the spikes or heads look 

 as if they haci heen charrec] l)y tire — hence the 

 terms brand and charboi). When more advanced, 

 there remains of tiie chaff only the l()rni!ess Irajr- 

 nients of a whitish colour, iiitermin<x!ed Aviih the 

 black dust. Sometimes, thouirh rarely, the ears 

 are enveloped iti a mendirane siniilarto the sheath 

 (^spatlia) of lilies. The black dust insensibly be- 

 comes dry, and is scattered bytiie winds or wash- 

 ed away by the rain, nothinix beinjr left lor the far- 

 mer to house but the barren skeletons of the spikes. 

 (^Tessier, p. 293.) 



The U|)per part of the stalk of corn infected with 

 emut is usually less strai^'ht than a healthy one, 

 the devititiou beffirming about half an mchbeneath 

 the spike ; but, as Mr. Bryant remarks, the in- 

 fected plants, taken as a whole, are more upright 

 than the healthy ones; for the milky juice which 

 should have been consolidated into heavy grain is 

 wanting, and the quantity of matter being much 

 1-ess in the smutty ears than in the healthy ones, 

 will keep them in the upright posture, while the 

 others are bending beneath their own weight. — 

 (^Disease in loheat, p. 47.) When a stalk of this 

 description is squeezed there, it scarcely yields in 

 the least to pressure; and, if cut asunder at ahout 

 a sixth part or a quarter of an inch below the 

 spike, it will be found to be entirely filled with pith, 

 so that only a very small tube can be perceived in 

 the centre, instead of the large one always present 

 in healthy plants. — (Tillet, Cause qui cnrrnmps 

 les Grains, p. 73.) The stem- ol' smutty corn," 

 when strongly pulled, separates at the first' upper 

 joint, and the lower end of this joint is distinctly 

 sweet to the taste, similar to what is observed in 

 healthy plants, a tact which M. Tessier thinks is 

 good proof that the sap is not altered on entering 

 the plant, nor till it has passed higher up than this 

 joint. 



Sometimes only a part of the ear is infected 

 \vith smut. " I have seen," says Kirby, " more 

 than once, half an ear of corn affected, when the 

 other hall" was good and sound;" and Tessier 

 says, it is in such cases only those grains nearest 

 the spike-stalk which are smutty; while JMr. Bry- 

 ant has observed even the embryo or germen itself 

 in branded ears as green and well shaped as in 

 those not infected. Sometiaies the half of the 

 sheath, or hose, is affected with smut and convert- 

 ed into black dust, in which case the sound part 

 encloses blossoms that are developed and bear 

 grain capable of arriving at maturity, ihousth 

 smaller in size than healthy grain ; for, in such 

 cases, the stalk grows more or less after the ear 

 has appeared, while at this period veg-pfation is 

 quite finished in plants entirely stmilty. — (Tessier.) 

 The whole ear, according to Bauer, is often found 

 entirely destroyed, many weeks beli)re even the 

 individual florets are entirely developed, or the 

 sound ears emerge from the hose. Sometimes, 

 but rarely, the infection takes place after the 

 blooming, and its progress is then more easily 

 traced. The embryo or germen is generally the 

 first attacked and found partially or half filled with 

 smut ; then the pistils, the stigmas, and the anthers. 

 Oats are often later in beinir alfected than barley 

 or wheat, the whole head frequently issuing from 



the eheath, or nose, to all appearance in n perfect- 

 ly sound- siate, or perhaps with only a tew black 

 spots on the spikelets at the base ; buitliese spread 

 rapidly, and, even after being se|)arated from the 

 stem, will continue to be destroyed by the smut so 

 long as any moisture remains. " I once," says 

 Mr. Bauer, "^collected and cut off several such 

 partially infected ears, which I intended to pre- 

 serve as specimens, and for that purpose I laid 

 them in brown paper to dry them ; they were ac- 

 cidentally mislaid and did not come into my hands 

 aL'ain till alter a period of six or seven months, 

 when on examination I found the whole speci- 

 mens were consumed." 



The writer of this paper collected a considerable 

 number of smutty ears of oats near Coblentz, on 

 the Rhine, in 1832, and kept them in a wooden 

 box for the purpose of experiment, but the stems 

 now (1S37) are as fi'esh as when gathered. Pro- 

 bably these stems, when gathered, miirht be in a 

 drier «tate than Mr. Bauer's, and this may account 

 for the ditierence. 



Mr. Kirl)y says he could never observe any dis- 

 eased appearance about tlie root, and that some- 

 times it aflipcts all the steins tillering from the same 

 root, while at other times some are healthy and 

 some diseased. The Abbe Tessier is disposed to 

 consider the latter statement, which had also been 

 made by Tiliet, as inaccurate ; fjr though, on 

 takinu up plums in the fields, he had occasionally 

 l()und healty and smutty phmts apparently spring- 

 ing from the same root, he tbund, on careful exam- 

 ination, that the roots were not the same, but in- 

 terlaced so as to'be separable. It is certain that 

 the plants afi'ected with smut carry fewer stems — 

 not above two or three — than healthy ones. Be- 

 sides, the secondary stems which rise li-om the 

 roots of smutty plants, have rarely tjufficient vigor 

 to shoot up many inches. 



. Mr. Lathbury examined, by means of a power- 

 ful magnifier, the black smut pou'der, and Ibund 

 that it consisted of a number oi" minute particles of 

 a uniform size and shape, smuch smaller and 

 blacker than those of the canker or pepper brand, 

 and less easily separable, while they seemed to be 

 contained in small cells of an irregular form. Mr. 

 Kirby says that a small shining black beetle (Der- 

 mcs/es ater, Marsham) feeds upon it. 



The most recent investigations respecting smut 

 are those of Adolphe Brongniart, the results of 

 which we shall now detail. The mode which he 

 adopted was to ascertain what part of the plant is 

 first attacked, how it is first manifested, and to 

 compare the difierent states of the tissues when 

 afli'cfed or not afl'ecled. 



In consequence of the smut not generally show- 

 ing itsell' till the cars are developed and escaped 

 tiom the hose or sheath, M. A. Brongniart long 

 souixht if in vain in very young plants, but at 

 length he was successful, [n the month of Au- 

 gust he observed a field of barley, in a very poor 

 soil, extensively affected by smut, so as to render 

 it easy to trace it-thronsh its difierent stages. On 

 examining, in this manner, the diseased spikelets, 

 instead of finding every part infected, as is usually 

 asserted by authors, he found that smut was quite 

 beneath the parts of"ii-uctifica'ion, which had been 

 pushed upwards by the growth of the smut, and 

 reduced to a ditninntive size, or what he terms a 

 rudimental state, their interior parts remaining un- 

 affected by the smut. The smut again occupied 



