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There are numerous chemical substances that may be used to 

 pickle seed, and prevent smut and bunt, but the one in most 

 general use is sulphate of copper, commonly known as Milestone. 

 This is cheap, easily procurable, and effective. When mixing the 

 pickle a copper or a wooden vessel should be used, as the vitrol 

 soon attacks and destroys other metals. The seed should not be 

 allowed to remain long in pickle, as it might absorb sufficient to 

 destroy the germ, or enough moisture to cause it to malt if sown in 

 dry ground. 



The usual method of pickling is to dissolve Milestone in hot 

 water at the rate of a quarter of a pound to the gallon. This is 

 sufficient for half a bag of wheat. A quantity of the solution is 

 made and put into a half-barrel or wooden tub. The butt of seed 

 is submerged in this until the liquid has thoroughly penetrated it. It 

 is then lifted out and placed on a cross piece over the tub to drain. 

 If large quantities of wheat have to be handled, I think the most 

 expeditious and economical way is to dump the contents of several 

 bags out on the floor of the barn and sprinkle the grain with the 

 liquid from a garden watering-can, turning the grain over with a 

 shovel as the sprinkling goes on. A dusting with dry lime renders 

 the seed at once fit for sowing either by hand or drill. If the salt 

 pickle is used, the brine must be sufficiently strong to float an egg, 

 and the seed must be immersed for fully five minutes in the solu- 

 tion and, when taken out, mixed with one-twelfth its own weight 

 of dry lime. 



Another plan is to dip the seed in a strong solution of lime, 

 the lime forming a thin coating upon the grain. If only a com- 

 paratively few bushels of seed have to be pickled, it will pay to 

 empty the contents of the bag into the pickling tub and stir them 

 well up. By this means all weed seeds, and light and defective 

 seeds that would not germinate, will come to the surface and may 

 be skimmed off. Every grain left in the tub will be sound and 

 whole. In whatever way the pickling is done, it must be borne in 

 mind that the s.eed must not be steeped or allowed to become 

 saturated with the solution. 



The device, as shown in the accompanying diagram, will be 

 found useful and handy, not only for pickling seed wheat and other 

 grains, but for potatoes, as a precaution against disease. 



The above is thus described by a writer in the Rural New 

 Yorker ; " I procure a good barrel, an oil barrel, and put a faucet 

 or plug in close to the bottom. Then I make a box 19 inches wide 

 outside (or three inches narrower than the chines of the barrel) by 

 three feet long, put cleats in the inside corners to strengthen it ; it 

 is open top and bottom, and as high as the tub I draw the liquid 

 into. I hollow out one end a little so the barrel will not roll when 

 turned down on its side ; the swell in the barrel just hits the end, 

 making it just about balance. I place the barrel on one end of the 

 box, with the faucet over the tub, fill with the solution and potatoes, 



