56 Oil Stnut in Wheat* 



ther circumstance prevents the native grasses from ar- 

 riving at the perfection they might otherwise acquire, 

 even in good ground, if seeded with the clover, whilst 

 the ground is light and in fine tilth, that by the time 

 the clover runs out, and these grasses begin to grow, the 

 ground is so hard and solid, that one might almost as 

 well expect a good crop of wheat by seeding without 

 ploughing, as these to gain the perfection they might 

 otherwise acquiie; and the complaint that farmers 

 make of land binding, would, I apprehend, seldom take 

 place, in ground sufficiently rich, if this method of 

 seeding was once introduced : and I have little doubt 

 but the native green grass and white clover, if a pro- 

 per method was once adopted for saving the seed, 

 would answer the intention, without the introduction 

 of foreign grasses. 



5. On smut in xvheat. On this subject I will only men- 

 tion an occurrence that took place about the year 1790 

 or 1791. A person, of the name of Rodger Trefry, (if 

 I remember right) a native of Wiltshire, came into 

 Yorkshire, with the following proposals ; that if 1000 

 farmers would subscribe one guinea each, to be given 

 him as a premium for discovering the cause and cure 

 of the smut in the wheat, he would make the discove- 

 ry, and would not ask for the money, till he had fully 

 satisfied them of the fact. Accordingly in the differ- 

 ent neighbourhoods through which he passed, he se- 

 lected such men, as could be mutually depended on, to 

 whom to entrust the secret, as it must take one whole 

 season before it could be proved, they giving their 

 promise of secresy, till the money was paid. A first 

 cousin of mine, with whom I was in habits of inti- 



