

PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE 



Part I IT. 



parcel .k formerly, ami In place "i it la] In ■ new straw, which i^ Hun to be used exactly ai if ;t 

 the old one. 



Ij hi/ chance, in working, any of the ttrnwi thould break, a thing which ran scarcely happen with 



wuili -li'i. - to an\ Dill the Outermost straw, and t.i it only through want of attention, it may be reme- 

 died without any more trouble than putting in a new one In it- place: and though the outside of the plait 

 with the old and new ttraw should exhibit the appearance of a broken loop, yet, in the knitting up of 

 the w i > ■ k , it cm easily be so managed that the defect shall be entirely concealed. 



Theknittin ■ noi d no( be begun till a- much of the plait is made as may be supposed sufficient to 

 form a bat, a- an entire hat of any desired shape may be made up of a single piece of plait. About 70 or 

 80 yards will be sufficient t'> make a lady's hat 



5060. Outtlde and inside of the hat In Joining in new straws during the plaiting, the end* of the new 

 and old ii.u ing been kept on ihe upper side of the plait, this will therefore be made the inside of the hat. 

 Alter twisting and turning the plait a little, to make it form the round piece for the top, the plait will be 

 id to lie with tin one side to the other, like the teeth of two saws turned to each other; and then so 

 in unite these two opposite sides that they may present the appearance of one piece, begin to sew by 

 nutting the needle in through the sort m stitch or loop on the outside of the plait, inserting the needle 

 from below. Take the stitch of the opposite piece in exactly the same way, and, after four or rive stitches 

 h side are taken on the thread, draw it up tightly, so that the stitches of both may be brought firmly 

 the one betide the other. In this manner, in the course of the operation, it will soon be seen that the 

 place where the seam is can scarcely be discovered from the rest of the plait. 



/ teui the crown at the hat so that it may be quite plain, every stitch of the one side must not be 

 taken with every one of the other, but every second or third only of one of tile sides, till the work get 

 on a little. 



5062 The blocking of a hat may be done with any round piece of smooth stick that will fill it. After 

 the hat is well steeped, and put on the block, it may be made quite smooth by beating it gently with a 

 hammer. (Quar. Jour. Ag. vol. i. p. 294.) 



5063. The diseases of wheat are the rust, smut, or black mildew, the latter including 

 what is vulgarly called blight. These have been already treated of in our view of the 

 vegetable economy, and we shall merely offer a few practical observations on the smut 



and mildew. 



The proximate cause of smut, in whatever manner the smut may be transmitted from the seed 

 pickle in the ground to the ear, it seems certain, is in general the infection of the seed by the dust of the 

 smut-ball, which B. de Jussieu first conjectured to bcLycoperdon globbsum, and which M. Frevost ascer- 

 tained to be a microscopic vegetable of some sort; and that though the most careful washing, even 

 with the application of caustics, may not in every case insure against smut, yet if the seed be prepared in 

 the way already mentioned, the disease will never prevail to such a degree as to affect materially the value 

 of the crop. This is all that cultivators need to know, and all, perhaps, in the present state of science, 

 that can be known, of the cause and prevention of smut. See an article at length on this subject in the 

 Juilish Former's Magazine, vol. iii. p. 176. 



5065. Mildew is a much more destructive distemper than smut; and, as it is probably occasioned by a 

 peculiar state of the atmosphere during the periods of flowering and ripening, It is likely to baffle all 

 attempts at prevention. The prevalence of heavy fogs or mist, drizzling rains, and sudden changes in 

 the temperature, have been assigned as the causes of mildew ; and as it has been found that open airy 

 exposures are much less affected than low sheltered lands, in years when mildew prevails most generally, 

 the disorder may perhaps be somewhat diminished by drilling, which admits a freer circulation of air. 

 Spring or summer wheat is less liable to mildew than the winter species, though it does not always escape. 

 Minute parasitical /'Vingi, Puccinia Graminis {Enc. of Plants), are commonly detected on the straw of 

 mildewed wheat ; and there cannot be the least doubt that the barberry bush, and probably several other 

 shrubs on which these Fungi abound, have a powerful influence in communicating the disease to a certain 

 distance. (Sir Joseph Bankes on Mildew, and Com. to the B. of Agr. vol. vii.) 



The wheat fly has, of late years, been one of the greatest enemies to the wheat crop in Scotland. 

 In North America this insect, or one of the same family, has been known for many years, more espe- 

 cially in New England ; and its alarming ravages are depicted from time to time in the newspapers, under 

 the name of the Hessian fly. In the modern nomenclature, the Rev. W. Kirby informs us that the wheat 

 fly, formerly the 7'ipula tritici Lin., is now the Cecidomyia tritici (fig. 7-4. a), and the Hessian fly the 



C. destructor (b). The wheat fly generally makes its 

 appearance about the end of June; and, according to 

 the observations of Mr. ShiirefT, they exist throughout 

 a period of thirty-nine days. The hue of the fly is 

 orange, the wings transparent, and changing colour 

 according to the light in which they are viewed. It 

 lays its eggs within the glumes of the florets, in clusters 

 varying in number from two to ten, or even fifteen ; and 

 the larva; feed upon the grain. " They are produced from 

 the eggs in the course of eight or ten days: they are at 

 first perfectly transparent, and assume a yellow colour in 

 a few days afterwards. They travel not from one floret 

 to another, and forty-seven have been numbered in one. 

 Occasionally there are found in the same floret lame 

 and a grain, which is generally shrivelled, as if de- 

 prived of nourishment ; and although the pollen may 

 furnish the larva; with food in the first instance, they 

 soon crowd around the lower part of the germen, and 

 there, in all probability, subsist on the matter destined 

 to form the grain." (Mag. Xat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 450.) The 

 larva; are preyed on by the Ceraphroh destructor, 

 an ichneumon By, which deposits its eggs in the body 

 of the larva; of the wheat fly; and this is the only cheek hitherto discovered for preventing the total 

 tion of the whe.it crops attacked by the Cecidomyia. Mr. Shirreff, speaking of this ichneumon, 

 I could not determine if it actually deposits its eggs in the maggot's body ; but there can be no 

 doubt, however, of the ichneumon piercing the maggots with a sting ; and, from stinging the same maggot 

 I dly, it i- probable the By delights to destroy the maggots, as well as to deposit eggs in their bodies. 

 i 1 irwig, also, devours the maggots as food. [Brit. Farm. Mag. voL iii. p. 493.) Mr. Gorrie estimates 

 sustained by the farming interest in the Carse of Gowrie district alone, by the wheat fly, at 20,1 00/. 

 in 1828, and at 36,000V. in 1829. [Perth Miscellany, vol i. p. 42.). The same writer, in May 

 1830, thus depicts the prospect of the wheat crop in the Carse of Cowrie : — "The Cecidomyia are still alive 

 in formidable legions. That the flies will this season lie in as great plenty as ever, is now (]U i te certain; that 

 i] ej will lay their eggs on no other plant than those of the wheat genus, is also true; the only chance of 

 I time the pupa? appear the fly state. Should this sunny weather bring them forward 

 within a fortnight or three weeks from this date, the greater part will have perished before the wheat is 



