78 Means to prevent the mildew of Wheat, Cite. 



was verdigrise, (acetate of copper) reduced to powder, in 

 the proportion of about hulf a pound of English verdigrise 

 to every six bushels of wheat, which was mixed with as 

 much human urine as would enabk the light grain, to 

 swim, that they might be skimmed off. The sted is 

 kept three hours in this liquid ', then dried with or with- 

 out lime, and sown. 



At Ghent, an apothecary, and his predecessors have 

 for above fifty years, prepared and sold a remedy against 

 the mildew, of which arsenic was the basis, and Mr. Pre- 

 vost, having found by various experiments that blue vi- 

 triol (sulphate oi copper) was also a preventive, the arsenic 

 has been abandoned. The following is the mode of pre- 

 paring the grain by this last process. Dissolve three 

 ounces and two drams of sulphate of copper, in three gal- 

 lons and three quarts, (wine measure) of cold water, for 

 every three bushels of grain that is to be prepared. Into 

 another vessel, capable of containing from fifty. three to 

 seventy-rime wine gallons, throw from three to four Win- 

 chester bushels of wheat into which the prepared liquid is 

 pou.ed, until it rises five or six inches above the corn. 

 Stir it thoroughly, and carefully remove all that swims* 

 After it has remained half an hour in the preparation, 

 throw the wheat into a basket that will allow the wa- 

 ter to escape, but not the grain. It ought then to be 

 immediately washed in rain water or pure water, which 

 will prevent any risque oi its injuring the grain, and 

 the n the seed dried, before it is sown. It may be preser- 

 ved in this shape for months. It appears by a quotation 

 of Sir John Sinclair from the Agricultural survey of the 

 county of Derbyshire, that copperas is used as a steep for 

 wheat by a farmer of the name of BuUer in tliat county. 



