PREPARATIONS FOR THE HARVEST. 177 



the whole plant, and to deprive it of the power to form 

 healthy seed. The straw also is of a pale sickly colour, 

 and is easily cut to pieces on being thrashed. There is 

 a very common opinion that barberry bushes have some 

 connexion with mildew in wheat, for it has been ob- 

 served that fields of corn in the vicinity of these bushes 

 suffer more than others. This has been so often asserted 

 by respectable observers, that it is vain to treat it as 

 a mere vulgar prejudice ; and we may rather seek to 

 account for the fact (if such it be) by supposing that 

 the barberry itself is very liable to mildew, and that, 

 when attacked by this disease, it communicates it to 

 the surrounding crops. There is yet another disease, 

 and that of a most extraordinary kind, called ergot ; 

 but this chiefly affects rye, and cannot therefore be fully 

 noticed here. It is a monstrous enlargement of the 

 grain, of a spongy texture internally, and containing 

 much oily matter. The effects of ergot, even when 

 mixed in small quantities with good flour, are most 

 disastrous to men and animals. 



The number of diseases thus suffered by grain in all 

 its stages, and by wheat in particular, has led to the 

 practice of steeping seed-corn in some powerful briny 

 solution capable of washing away or destroying the par- 

 ticles of fungus, &c. which may be adhering to the 

 grain. This practice is almost iiniversal, and cannot be 

 neglected with safety. These precautionary measures 

 are more easy and more sure than any remedies which 

 can be applied when once disease has made its way 

 among the crop. Having thus described the chief ene- 

 mies of the wheat crop, let us return to the immediate 

 business of the harvest. 



All needful care having been bestowed on the state 

 of the crops during previous months, the farmer is now 

 about to reap the fruit of all his labour. All is pre- 

 paration and activity. Few are the hours of daylight 

 which are given to sleep, or to recreation ; for the active 

 man well knows the value of early rising, and of 



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