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/. Parker, Esq. of Kent County, Maryland ; his account 

 of Sedge Wheat, and successful experiments by chang- 

 ing Seed. 



Read March 18I6. 



Long Mead. Kent Co. Md. Feb. 18, 1816, 



Sir 



As the proper season for investigating the cause of the 

 disease in wheat, noticed in the Memoirs Vol. L page 

 124, and Vol III. page 422, (by some called sedge, by 

 some stud, but which I think may as properly be called 

 stunt) is approaching, I have thought proper to state to 

 you such facts on the subject, as have occurred in the 

 course of my business. 1 have for fifteen years had an 

 opportunity of noticing its progress, and although 1 have 

 not been able to ascertain its cause, I have discovered a 

 remedy, which has in a great measure rendered it harm- 

 less. 



I. It first appeared in this neighbourhood on a farm I 

 now own, on an inconsiderable eminence. The then 

 proprietor, a gentleman of nice observation, and a prac- 

 tical farmer of much experience, discovered that the 

 wheat had on that spot, for several crops, began to de- 

 cline in March, and although the disease affected only a 

 small part at first, it increased considerably every crop. 

 He tried various methods to remedy the evil : as the 

 ground afforded a proper scite, he made his treading floor, 

 and stacked and trod his wheat there, but treading the 

 ground hard for that purpose, had no effect : he planted 

 the ground in corn, and instead of sowing it with wheat 

 (the usual practice here) he let it lie over, and had it 

 ploughed very deep in the winter ; in the spring he sowed 



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