NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. BARRETT, NO.-52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural War] hoi -i -.)— T. G. FESSENDEN EDITOR 



vol. xir. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 28, 1833. 



NO. 7. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



THE CULTURE OP WHEAT No. II. 



Mr. Editor. — In my recent communication on 

 the blighting of wheat, which you have done me 

 the honor to lay before the public, I suggested 

 that jts cause was atmospherical ; or, if you prefer 

 it, meteorological ; or to dispense with hard words, 

 that it was owing to the particular character of the 

 weathi r occurring at the time, when the wheat 

 was in the precise condition to suffer from it. — 

 Under these circumstances no human prudence 

 can effectually guard against it, since it is utterly 

 beyond our control or calculation. 



I had then given no other attention to the sub- 

 ject than the observation of my own field, and 

 that of some of my neighbors. Since that time 

 however, I have examined the best authorities in 

 my library, and find my own suggestions confirm- 

 ed by the opinions of some of the most eminent 

 writers on agricultural subjects. 



The principal diseases to which this valuable 

 crop is subject, are smut, blight, mildew, and 

 rust. Smut is a disorder very well understood. 

 Of this there are two kinds; but, as a preventive 

 of this disease has been ascertained, the farmer 

 has only to complain of bis own negligence, if he 

 suffers from it. Of the other diseases, blight, mil- 

 dew, or rust, they are not very nicely distinguish- 

 ed from each other ; indeed the terms are often 

 indiscriminately applied to the same appearances 

 or effects ; and though by very acute and -accurate 

 observers, those terms will be distinctly and appro- 

 priately applied to three different conditions of the 

 diseased plant, or, if you prefer it, to three differ- 

 ent diseases of the wheat plant, yet as the specific 

 distinctions of these diseases are not familiarly 

 known, nor their particular causes investigated, 

 and as the fatal results similar in all the cases, are 

 much more important than the characteristic differ- 

 ences, we shall speak of the whole under the gen- 

 eral term of blight. 



I suggested that my wheat was struck with the 

 fatal blast, when it was in the flower and the ker- 

 nel was just firming; and the weather at the time 

 extremely hot and sultry, with rain and sunshine 

 intermingled, and the earth straining most profuse- 

 ly under the intense heat. Now permit me to 

 quote from Sir John Sinclair's General Report of 

 the Agriculture of Scotland, vol. i, p. 473, &c. 



" Blight may perhaps be defined as an internal 

 disease in the ear or spike of the wheat, either af- 

 fecting all, or only a part of the florets, producing 

 an entire or partial deficiency of seeds, or in a 

 lessor state of the disease, rendering the grains 

 small, shrivelled, and light. Blight is probably 

 produced by heavy rains falling at the time the 

 wheat is in flower, that is, when the anthers'are 

 protruded from the florets ; and by which rains, 

 the pollen farina fozcundans or vivifying dust of 

 the anthers is washed away before it has come to 

 sufficient maturity to impregnate the stiles leading 

 to the ovaries or receptacles of the embryo grains 

 or seeds. 



"In 1808, 1809, and 1810, serious injury was 

 suffered in many parts of Britain by disease, and 

 consequent defalcation of the wheat crop, which 

 cousisted of a combination of the blight and mil- 



dew, and appeared to have been occasioned by 

 the circumstances of the weather, mentioned above 



as productive of both." The following descrip- 

 tion of that complicated and destructive disease 

 ii abstracted from answers made to queries 

 proposed by Sir John Sinclair to an intelligent far- 

 mer. I quote otdy a part. 



" from the best information I can procure, the 

 mildew began to make its appearance on the straw 

 and ears ol'thc growing wheats, immediately sub- 

 sequent to a heavy fog or mist, rising as it were 

 out of the ground, about the 4th to the 10th July 

 1808, and which was followed by much misty and 

 rainy weather, attended by considerable Inat and 

 very little wind. The peculiar fog or mist, above 

 alluded to, is called ground rook, in some parts oi 

 Scotland, and strongly resembles a thick smoke, 

 which appears to rise from the surface of the earth." 

 This is peculiarly the weather, which I meant to 

 describe. 



Then again in his Husbandry of Scotland, vol. 

 ii. ]). 124, Appendix, in an essay by Sir John Sin- 

 clair himself, on this very subject, in which he 

 gives as he says, the results of a very extensive 

 inquiry made towards the end of August and the 

 beginning of Sept. 1S08, into the nature and caus- 

 es of these distempers, at which time blight, rust 

 or mildew, hail affected the crops of many of the 

 most productive districts, both in England and 

 Scotland, he mentions "that a respectable friend of 

 his (Geo. Dempster, Esq. of Dunnichen,) informs 

 me, that his wheat turned out a miserable parcel 

 ol shrivelled stuff, neither injured by the mildew 

 or smut, but that its bad stale is to be entirely im- 

 puted to heavy rains, when in flower, by which it 

 was laid." "According to Du Hainel, the rust 

 is owing to dry gloomy weather happening when 



the corn is at the height of its vegetation. 



Tull .observes, that the rays of the sun are neces- 

 sary for keeping the wheat healthy and strong, as 

 it is doubtless the native of a hot country. Any 

 thing therefore that interrupts the rays of the sun, 

 must be injurious to that grain. And in America 

 the mildew is attributed to the fogs and heavy 



dews, which come on as_ the season advances 



Sometimes the fogs and mists are so close and 

 thick, that the air seems in some degr:;e to In u 

 lost its elastic powers, so that neither animals nor 

 vegetables can endure it." I quote here authori- 

 ties to show how strongly they attribute these dis- 

 eases of wheat to an atmospheric influence. 



I return again to the account of the extent of 

 this injury to the wheat crops in Great Britain, 

 given by the same intelligent writer, quoted 

 first from the General Report of the Agricul- 

 ture of Scotland, a distinct work from Sinclair's 

 Husbandry of Scotland. "After this appearance 

 of mildew, the wheat crop was much lodged by 

 heavy rains about the beginning of August; and 

 in several instances the straw had become so ten- 

 der by the effect of the disease that it hurst open 

 in bending under the weight of the rain. By this, 

 entire fields were destroyed, so as not to contain a 

 single grain of wheat in the ears, and the straw 

 became utterly unfit for fodder. In such cases, 

 whole fields that promised ample crops, .were 

 mown and led into the fold-yard as bottoming to 

 the dung-hills ; while others were dried like hay, 



and built up in stacks, to bed the fold -yards, feed- 

 ing sheds, and stables, as wanted. In one in- 

 stance, in Northumberland, a removing tenant ab- 

 solutely refused to reap and remove his last crop 

 of wheat, which was utterly useless to him, but 

 might serve his successor, to convert into muck, 

 and he was found not liable to the charge, 

 which would have been for the sole benefit of 

 another person. In other cases where the plants 

 remained alive and unbroken, the injury was not 

 so entire, yet sufficiently distressing, by the dimi- 

 nution of the quantity of produce, and the deteri- 

 oration of the quality of the grain, which remain- 

 ed. This varied in different proportions accord- 

 ing to circumstances. Crops that were estimated 

 at the beginning of July to produce 40 bushels of 

 good wheat from each acre, were valued at har- 

 vest to give 6, 10, 12. or up to 20 bushels of very 

 interior grain, some of which did not command 

 the price of inferior oats; and many farmers ac- 

 cordingly gave their bad wheat to their work hors- 

 es and sold their oats. The whole of the injury 

 was not attributable to mildew, but proceeded 

 from the concurrence of two other causes ; a blight 

 in the ear, occasioned by heavy showers of rain, 

 while the wheats were in full flower, by which the 

 pollen was washed away, and prevented from fe- 

 cundating the florets. This idea is strengthened 

 by the circumstance of the upper florets of the 

 ears, and very often the whole of one side of the 

 head, being generally barren. In consequence of 

 a great d el if the crop having been lodged by 

 I eavy rain at the beginning of August, the grain 

 produce when impregnated, became sloomy, or 

 small, shrivelled, and ill filled. Both of these 

 causes are kn >wn to injure grain crops materially. 

 in years' when the mih ew has not been noticed." 



"No discrimination of soils could be pointed 

 out, as more or less affected by the disease. It 

 attacked the crops of wheat on strong as well as 

 on free soils ; and the only observable difference 

 was that high, open, free airy situations were 

 comparatively less diseased, while low grounds, 

 much sheltered by high hedges, hedge row trees, 

 and plantations, and situations near rivers, were 

 obviously and considerably more materially injur- 

 ed. The near neighborhood of the sea seemed to 

 have a beneficial influence in preventing or les- 

 sening the disease. Much of the wheat crop in 

 various soils and situations was comparatively ex- 

 empted j or so little injured as to give an abundant 

 produce, and of good quality. But no circum- 

 stances occurred that could throw any light on the 

 causes of this difference, at least in a practical 

 vi.w of the subject, so as to point out any means 

 of preventing or even lessening the evil on any fu- 

 ture opportunity." 



{C/ == " Upon the whole" the writer concludes 

 "this complicated disease, by which such serious 

 injury is caused to farmers and the public, appears 

 to have been occasioned by the unfavorable state 

 of the weather at the time of flowering, combined 

 with a continuance of unfavorable weather, dur- 

 ing the after progress of the wheat in filling and 

 ripening, and to be utterly unsusceptible of any 

 preventive, precautionary, or curative attempts by 

 any human efforts." 



Now the situation of my own wheat crop, which 



