CHOICE OP SEED. 3s 



ground. Full, plump, sound, and healthy seed, free 

 from weeds, is chosen or reserved by the farmer. The 

 soil on which the seed-corn has been reared, and the 

 greater or less likelihood of its thriving on the land in 

 which it is about to be sown, are considerations not 

 overlooked by practical men ; indeed there is an art in 

 the choice of seed which experience only can teach, and 

 which is more important than many farmers seem to 

 imagine. 



But however fair this well-chosen seed may appear to 

 the eye, it is yet advisable to use some precaution before 

 it is placed in the earth, to preserve it from a disease 

 which may possibly attack it during the ensuing sum- 

 mer, and render the crop almost worthless. This 

 disease is called smut, from the sooty appearance of the 

 ears infected with it. Now it may seem strange that 

 anything done to the dry grain, before it is laid in the 

 ground, should be able to preserve the young plant from 

 this disease ; but so it is. Although many persons, and 

 even some few farmers, affect to despise the means em- 

 ployed, and to consider the benefit merely fanciful, yet 

 the majority are decidedly in favour of it, and never 

 think of omitting the simple precaution, which is this : 

 to steep the grain in brine, or some other strong liquor, 

 and afterwards to sift over it some newly slaked lime. 



Steeping is, therefore, one of the preparatory steps to 

 sowing, and is generally conducted in the straw-barn, 

 where tubs have been set for two or three weeks pre- 

 viously to contain the steep. Although some persons 

 use strong brine, and various other steeps, nothing is 

 more effectual or more generally used than chamber-ley. 

 When this has been kept a proper time, and is giving 

 off its ammonia freely, the operation is conducted some- 

 what in the following manner. A basket, holding about 

 half a bushel of wheat, is filled with corn, and lowered 

 by a pair of handles (which stand upright on its rim) 

 into the tub far enough for the steep completely to cover 

 the corn without reaching the hands of the operator. 



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