Means to prevent *he mildew of Wheat, Z?c. 79 



That the mildew is either not in the soil, or if it is, 

 that the application of copper preparations to the seed, 

 prevents its injuring the plants, is proved by an experi- 

 ment, detailed by Sir John Sinclair, where mildewed 

 grain was sown in a field that had before produced mil- 

 dewed wheat ; and yet the crop raised from the mil- 

 dewed seed, which had be jn subjected to the above prepa- 

 ration, was no in the least affected by that malady. 



Mr. T. A. Knight of Herefordshire, to whom we 

 are indebted for the elucidation of many interesting ques- 

 tions on the subject of vegetable physiology, is of opinion 

 that the disease called mildew is taken up by the root, 

 (every experiment to communicate it from infected 

 straws to others proving abortive) and that all we see 

 externally is its fructification. This corresponds with 

 Mr. Prevost's opinion, that it is an intestine parasitical 

 plant, and hence Sir John justly concludes, that the 

 root coming from a seed fortified against infection by pre- 

 parations of copper may resist the disorder, however much 

 that root may afterwards be exposed to its influence. 



In addition to the foregoing facts of the succesful em- 

 ployment of steeps to prevent smut and mildew, I may 

 add those related by Tull, the father of the drill hus- 

 bandry, and more recently of Mr. Barton of Virginia,* 



* Wheat brought from Red-Stone in Pennsylvania to Frederic. 

 County, Virginia, to exchange for salt, was used as seed-wheat by Mf 

 B ; and was steeped in strong salt brine, and covered with sifted lime 

 previously to sowing. His crop from that wheat escaped smut, while 

 the crops of two of his neighbours, who sowed the same wheat without 

 any p evious preparation, suffered much from smut. Barton's Medi- 

 cal and Physical Journal., vol. Hi. 2nd Suppl. p. 178, 



