1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



745 



circumstances of practical agriculture, I did not in- 

 ject the wheat to as great a degree as had been 

 done in the preceding years, in which the grains 

 had been completely blackened by the dust of the 

 smut. On this occasion, the dust was added only 

 in a sufficient quantity to alter the color of the 

 grains perceptibly to the eye, without making them 

 black; only the extremities of the grains covered 

 with down, were completely blackened; and in 

 fine, this wheat was affected and injured by the 

 smut to a degree greatly beyond what is ever met 

 with in the markets, and was such as would never 

 find a purchaser. This wheat thus infected, and 

 sowed without any other preparation, gave, when 

 gathered, a hundred and forty-three smutty heads 

 in the thousand, whereas in the preceding years, 

 the infection carried to a much higher degree had 

 given from five to seven hundred. All the prepa- 

 rations of this year were made by means of sprink- 

 ling, but the liquid was applied first, and the lime 

 afterwards as has been just explained. 



Lime alone employed in this way, after wetting 

 the grains with pure water, or white-wash; and 

 in the quantity of from one to two kilogrammes* 

 to the hectolitre,! presented the proportion of two, 

 seven and twenty-four smutty heads in the thou- 

 sand. 



Lime, in the quantity of two kilogrammes to the 

 hectolitre, first made into white-wash, with a so- 

 lution of a demi-kilogramme of common salt, or 

 hydrochlorate of soda,gave still two smutty heads 

 in the thousand. 



Lime, in the quantity of two kilogrammes, and 

 common salt in a proporlion which varied from five 

 hectogrammes to two kilogrammes, the whole to 

 the hectolitre of grain, but applied separately, first 

 wetting the grain vvith the solution of salt, offered 

 not a single smutty head in one case, and produced 

 from one to three in the others. 



Lime,in the same quantity as above, united with 

 sulphate of soda also in the same proportions, and 

 with the same mode of management showed not 

 a single smutty head in the three squares which 

 were subjected to this preparation. 



This result as is seen, fully confirms that of the 

 preceding year, and we have henceforward, in the 

 use of sulphate of soda united with lime, a preser- 

 vative means against smut, not. only superior in ef- 

 ficacy to all those, which have been known till now, 

 but even of an efficacy which may be called ab- 

 solute; since it did nut leave a single smutty head 

 in the four squares — in which it was used during 

 the two years, and which contained together more 

 than eighty thousand heads of wheat; and since, it 

 has even completely destroyed the germs of smut 

 in a sowing, infected to the extreme degree of that 

 of the year 1833. This means so powerful con- 

 sists in the use of substances of very low price, 

 presenting no risk to men or animals, and with a 

 mode of application the most easy, and least trou- 

 blesome. 



I will give presently, the details of the process of 

 liming as it ought to be performed according to my 

 experiments, reducing the quantities to the hecto- 



* The kilogramme is 2.20543 pounds avoirdupois, or 

 rather more than 2 and one-fifth. 



fThe hectclitre (100 litres,) is 22.009667 gallons— 

 little morethan22gallous,or2 £v six-eighths of'a bushel. 



Vol. Ill— 94 



litre, as 1 have done in the preceding notices: but 

 some very important considerations ought to be 

 first, presented. From the commencement of my ex- 

 periments I had ascertained that certain prepara- 

 tions, at the same time that they exert their action 

 on the germs of the smut, tend also to injure,in dif- 

 ferent, degrees, or even to destroy entirely, the ger- 

 minating faculty of ihe wheat. This is a point to 

 which certainly not enough attention has been paid 

 up to this time, and of which no mention is made, 

 I believe, in any of the. writings published on this 

 subject. It has probably very frequently happened 

 that crops of wheat, have been thin and unproduc- 

 tive, without a suspicion of the cause, which was to 

 he found in a liming made in an improper manner. 

 In the course of my experiments I have particu- 

 larly remarked this injury to the germinating fa- 

 culty of wheat in sowings treated with sulphurous 

 acid, with carbonate of soda united with lime, or 

 even employed alone either forsteeping, or sprink- 

 ling. The same observation was made in sowings 

 sprinkled with common salt and lime; when I en- 

 deavored to increase the efficacy of these agents 

 by repeatedly wetting the grain thus treated with 

 water during twenty-four hours. These observa- 

 tions induced me, in my experiments, to pay par- 

 ticular attention to this property of the agent- em- 

 ployed as preservatives from smut, and each year 

 the effects produced in this repect by each ol the 

 preparations made use of have been ascertained 

 with care, by means which it would be too tedious 

 to speedy in this place. 



In a publication made last year, a distinguished 

 agriculturist of the neighborhood of Paris, an- 

 nounced that he had entirely lost his sowings of 

 wheat on large fields, from having, in liming it, di- 

 luted the lime with cows' urine, instead of the 

 drainingsof the dung-hill which he generally uses 

 lor this purpose. Many other similar facts have 

 remained unobserved, or been known but to few 

 persons, from the general reluctance of farmers to 

 publish the results of their operations. In relation 

 to the particular laet of which I havejust spoken, 

 I will say that, it is quite common for farmers to 

 mix with the lime and other mineral substances 

 which they use for liming, different very strong 

 manureSjSUch as ihe liquids above mentioned, the 

 dung ol pigeons, or fowls, &c, &c. It. is evident 

 that, in the minds of the men who have adopted 

 these means, the addition of such substances was 

 designed to give greater activity to the vegetation 

 of the wheat — at the same time, that the germs of 

 the smut were destroyed by the lime, or other min- 

 eral agents; for it is not probable that any one 

 could ever have supposed, that manures could, of 

 themselves, destroy the principle of the smut; but 

 the design which they must have had in this, is 

 founded in ideas entirely erroneous as regards the 

 nutriment of vegetables. In the first days which 

 succeed the developement of the germ, the seed 

 itself furnishes the only nourishment which can 

 support the germ, and this nourishmenl consists in 

 principles of a particular nature, formed in the seed, 

 to accomplish this object. Art has never yet dis- 

 covered any substance which can substitute the 

 kind of milK that is produced in the seed, at the 

 period of germination; and if we would subject to 

 experiment all the preparations which have been 

 pointed out to give more activity to vegetation at 

 this period, we should find them all inefficient or 

 injurious. It is the radicle which is first developed, 



