SMUT. 



SNAKE-ROOT. 



noticed already. These considerations suggest 

 that applications to the soil as well as to the 

 seed are necessary for the banishment of the 

 disease ; but a more full notice, and some cu- 

 rious particulars upon this point, will be found 

 detailed under the head MILDEW. 



I have frequently examined the roots of 

 wheat plants affected by the smut, but have 

 never perceived that they had a diseased ap- 

 pearance; a fact which I find confirmed by 

 the researches of Mr. Kirby. Although the 

 root is not affected, yet I have invariably found 

 the smutted plants of a form and habit much 

 less robust than those undiseased. The ave- 

 rage result of Mr. Bevan's experiments is, that 

 smutted wheat produces straw in the proportion 

 of only 30 to 36-75, when compared with wheat 

 unattacked by the smut. This is not a result 

 contrary to that which might be anticipated; 

 for in plants, as well as animals, an organic 

 affection so serious as this is usually accom- 

 panied by a general emaciation of the frame. 

 So decidedly is this effect produced upon wheat, 

 that a practised eye can at once detect by its 

 appearance, before the diseased ear is pro- 

 truded, a plant that is thus distempered. The 

 stem and leaves look upright, thin, and stiff, 

 wearing the aspect that is best described, to 

 those who know the appearance, by the term 

 staring. I cannot conclude without remarking 

 that these facts strengthen the analogy I am so 

 fond of tracing between plants and animals. 

 The atrophy exhibited by both, when under the 

 influence of disease, is strikingly illustrative 

 of their close relationship; and this is further 

 carried on by their being equally liable to the 

 ravages of parasites. The skin of every ani- 

 mal is liable to be infested by vermin, as its in- 

 testines and other viscera are by worms and 

 various other creatures. <5o plants are not 

 only subject to invermination, but, like ani- 

 mals, they are preyed upon by various genera 

 of their own race. Their barks are assailed 

 by numerous lichens and fungi, whilst inter- 

 nally they are a prey to the Uredo I have just 

 described, and to several others of the fungus 

 tribe. Animals have their larger parasites, as 

 the tick, &c., and vegetables similarly bear the 

 misseltoe, dodder, and others. This repeated 

 urging that plants are closely allied to animals 

 in every particular is not without its use. 

 Every year's experience convinces me that it 

 is not less beneficial to cultivate plants with 

 the least possible injury to their various parts, 

 than it is to treat our farming stock with gen- 

 tleness ana* an attention to their comfort ; and 

 it is by demonstrating the analogy between 

 the two great divisions of created beings, that 

 the reason of the cultivator is to be drawn to 

 regulate his practice. 



Finally, I will observe, that the farmer is 

 much too prone to regard the diseases of his 

 crops as of trivial importance. In such cases 

 as where the curl destroys whole fields of his 

 potatoes, or the mildew reduces the produce 

 of each acre of wheat to a few bushels, he is 

 miserably sensible of the injury he has sus- 

 tained; but if, within the circle of corn-ears 

 around him, as he surveys his crops, he only 

 sees a sprinkling of those affected with the 

 smut, he looks upon this as of insignifican 

 1000 



consequence. Yet, in the experiments of Mr. 

 Bevan, in the instances where only two smut- 

 ted ears occurred in three sheaves, the weight 

 of the straw was reduced nearly one-third, and 

 that of the grain three-sevenths. (Essay by 

 G. W. Johnson, Quart. Journ. dgr. vol. ix. p. 45.) 

 See BLIGHT and MILDEW. 



SMUT-MILL. Of late years the millers in 

 the United States avail themselves of contri- 

 vances called smut-mills, the passage of the 

 wheat through which clears it very effectually 

 from the offensive dust. Wheat affected with 

 smut was formerly much objected to by the 

 grain merchants and millers, but since the in- 

 troduction of the machines referred to, is so 

 readily cleansed that smut is scarcely objected 

 ;o in the sample, and the market price reduced 

 but little, if at all. 



An inquiry made, in March, 1842, into the 

 merits of a smut-mill invented by Mr. Wm. C. 

 rimes, of York, Pennsylvania, by a committee 

 of the Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania, war- 

 ranted them in recommending the machine to 

 the notice of millers, as capsule not only of 

 making good white flour from wheat so badly 

 smutted as to be generally considered unmer- 

 chantable, but which will also improve the 

 eneral quality of flour, by the removal of 

 cheat, and of the down or furze which covers 

 one end of the grain, and of most other acci- 

 dental foreign matters which tend to injure the 

 quality of the flour. (Jour, of the Franklin Inst. 

 )f Penn. vol.iv., third series, p. 32.) 



SNAILS (Helix Hdidda). A well-known 

 genus of molluscous animals, comprising a 

 great many species. They live throughout the 

 winter in a torpid state, in cavities in the earth, 

 which are covered over with a calcareous kind 

 of wall, partly formed with its mucous secre- 

 tion. The animal escapes from its cell in April, 

 bursting its operculum, and again breathes as 

 before its hybernation. The species of shell- 

 snails are very extensive. In the garden, snails 

 do much damage to the vegetables in cultivated 

 grounds, biting off pieces of the leaves by 

 means of a semicircular, dentated, horny plate 

 which is affixed to the upper lip. To extirpate 

 them, it has been recommended to strew the 

 ground with lime and ashes, or salt. Snails 

 seldom annoy farmers, unless it be under the 

 hedges ; and if they venture out into the mid- 

 dle of a field, the roller is a certain destructive 

 implement to their fragile coverings. The red, 

 or great vine-snail (H. partial ia), formed one of 

 the luxuries of the tables of the ancient Ro- 

 mans, and by peculiar feeding and other treat- 

 ment was brought to attain an immense size. 

 It is still an article of food in certain cantons 

 of Switzerland and France, and some of the 

 provinces of Spain and Portugal. This spe- 

 cies of helix was brought to England by the 

 Howard family, and placed on the grounds in 

 the neighbourhood of Box-hill, where it is still 

 found; but it does not attain to the size it often 

 displays in Italy. It is supposed to be a good 

 article of food for the consumptive. 



SNAKE-ROOT. Several plants in the United 

 States go under this appellation. The Virginia 

 snake-root (Jlrittolochia scrpcntaria) is the well- 

 known fibrous root, noted for its intense bitter- 

 ness, and extensively employed in medicine as 



