1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



4G3 



where ft is the practice to sow what they call wies- 

 lin, (blend corn,) or a mixture of rye and wheat, 

 it has been there remarked, that wheat thus 

 raised is rarely infected by the rust* It is singu- 

 lar, that the same circumstance has been observed 

 in Italy. In an account drawn up by the late 

 Professor Symonds, of Cambridge, on the climate 

 of that country, it is recorded as a known, but ex- 

 traordinary fact, "that wheat, mixed with rye or 

 tares, (lor it is a frequent practice there, to sow 

 tares with wheat,) escapes unhurt."] It would 

 appear, from tares being so useful, that the seed 

 of the fungus must be taken up by the root, ^ and 

 that if the root be protected it is sufficient. This 

 seems to be countenanced by other circumstances, 

 as, that by treading the ground, and thick sowing 

 crops of wheat, the crop is less liable to be infect- 

 ed by this disease; the access of the seeds of the 

 fungi, to the root, being rendered more difficult. 

 The effect of tares as a preventive, may easily be 

 tried. The double crops sown in Flanders, where 

 the rust is hardly known, is another circumstance 

 strongly favorable to the idea, of the advantage 

 derivable from covering the roots of wheat from 

 infection. Mr. Knight is decidedly of opinion, 

 that the disease is taken up by the root, (every ex- 

 periment to communicate it from infected straw, 

 to others, proving abortive;) and indeed, if it were 

 introduced at the ear of the plant, how could it 

 descend, and infect solely the stem? which is the 

 case, unless when the disease is inveterate. Others 

 attribute rust to the influence of the sun upon the 

 roots. Hence the advantages of having a thick, 

 rather than a thin crop; and hence, it is said, the 

 beneficial effects of mixing rye with wheat, the 

 rough bending head of the rye, protecting the 

 earth from the power of the sun. It is also a sin- 

 gular fact, that plants of wheat under trees, es- 

 cape rust, though the neighboring crop is infested 

 with it. This may be owing, eiiher to the protec- 

 tion from the violence of the sun, or the moisture 

 which is retained in the soil, by the means of the 

 shade thus procured. 



By one or other of these means, and the im- 

 provements which may be effected, by the obser- 

 vations of ingenious naturalists, and the expe- 

 rience of intelligent farmers, there is every reason 

 to hope, that the diseases of wheat may, in a great 

 measure, be so mitigated in their effects, that 

 they will not in future be felt as a national calami- 

 ty. For that purpose, however, it is necessary, 

 that the ddigent farmer should seize every oppor- 

 tunity of improving his knowledge in the nature of 

 those diseases, should note down all the circum- 

 stances connected with the subject as they occur, 

 and should compare his observations with those of 

 others; that whether the causes of rust are gene- 

 ral, or local, they may, as much as possible, be 

 obviated. He may be assured, that it is "the per- 



*East Riding Report, p. 127.— Mr. Tuke, the intel- 

 ligent author of the North Riding Report, in a letter to 

 the Author, dated 7th March 1818, states, that until 

 the year IS 15, rye grown amongst wheat, was general- 

 ly allowed to be, in that district, a sure preventive of 

 rust or mildew; but that year, rye itself was infected, 

 and there was very little either wheat or meslin that 

 escaped in Yorkshire. 



t See Annals of Agriculture, vol. iii. p. 153. 



fection of good management,'''' to discriminate the 

 causes to which the disorders of grain are owing, 

 and to apply the cheapest and the most effectual 

 remedies. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 

 PRESERVING ROOTS. 



We find in Chaptal's -''Chemistry applied to 

 Agriculture," an excellent chapter on the preser- 

 vation of animal and vegetable substances. We 

 extract the following from the preliminary re- 

 marks. 



"The nature of all bodies which have ceased to 

 live or vegetate, are changed, as soon as the phy- 

 sical or chemical laws, by which they are govern- 

 ed, cease to act; the elements of which they were 

 composed, then form new combinations, and con- 

 sequently new substances. 



"Whilst an animal lives, or a plant vegetates, the 

 laws of chemical affinity are continually modified 

 in its organs by the laws of vitality; but when 

 the animal or plant ceases to live, it becomes 

 entirely subject to the laws of chemical affin- 

 ity, by which alone its decomposition is effect- 

 ed. ^ 



"The principles of the atmospheric air which is 

 imbibed by the organs of living bodies, whether 

 animal or vegetable, are decomposed and assimi- 

 lated by them, whilst dead bodies are decomposed 

 by its action. Heat is the most powerful stimulant 

 of the vital functions, yet it becomes, after death, 

 one of the most active agents in the work of des- 

 truction. Our efforts, then, for the preservation of 

 bodies, ought to be directed to counteracting or 

 governing those chemical or physical agents, from 

 the action of which they suffer; and we shall see 

 that all the methods which have been successful, 

 are those which have been formed upon this prin- 

 ciple. 



"The chemical agents which exert the most 

 powerful influence over the products of the earth, 

 are air, water and heat; the action of* these, how- 

 ever, is not equally powerful over all classes of 

 plants; the soft and watery, and those which ap- 

 proach the animal matter, decompose most readi- 

 ly; the principles of such are less coherent, less 

 strongly united than that of others; so that the 

 action of disorganizing agents upon them is 

 prompt and effectual. 



"All the methods now employed for the preser- 

 vation of bodies, consist in so far changing their 

 nature, as to deprive them of the elements of de- 

 struction contained within their own organs: or in 

 secluding the substances to be preserved from con- 

 tact with the destructive agents mentioned in the 

 preceding paragraph; or in causing them to imbibe 

 certain other substances, the anti- putrescent qual- 

 ities of which counteract all action, whether of in- 

 ternal or external agents. 



"In all vegetable products, water exists in two 

 different states, one part of it being found free, 

 and the other in a state of true combination; the 

 first portion, not being confined except by the co- 

 vering of the vegetable, evaporates at the temper- 

 ature of the atmosphere; the second is set free 

 onlyat a temperature sufficiently high to decom- 

 pose the substances containing it: the first, though 

 foreign to the composition of the vegetable, en- 

 ters into every part of it, dissolving some of its 



