3-i.G 'AGRICLLTURAL MUSEUM 



The singalar phenomenon of whole fields in paiiiculai- 

 liistricts being instantaneously depiived of vegetation, 

 appears from manj cireumstanccs, to have been occii- 

 siori.'dbjthe clcctrifi fluid wlileli the clouds at that- 

 period emitted in remarkable tjnantities ; particulaily 

 when we reflect that no other means, hiiherto experi- 

 enced was competent to that effect, except frost; anrl it 

 is evident that frost could not have accomplished what 

 took place, without manifest injury to, if not total destruc- 

 tion of various other kinds of crops, especially potatoL-s* 

 which though liable to damage from even slight degrees 

 of frost, escaped without the s?nalles't blemish. As to 

 the partial injury which the wheat crop in general experi- 

 enced, it seems to have proceeded from an excess of 

 unfavourable filling weather, as a continuation of easter- 

 ly hazy fogs never fail to retard tl;c filling process, at 

 times partially to arrest conception and maturation, an4 

 to bring rust and a dusky hue On all plants not in vigor- 

 ous growth, which afterwards become a prey to aniraialt^ 

 that take possession of tiiam. Heavy showers have the 

 samecflect; and, oven in moist cloudy weather, grahi 

 is never fully matured. These causes combined, continu- 

 ing to operate for several weeks as was the case last 

 season were surely suflieicnl to accomplish (excepting 

 the mortal blow alluded to as proceeding from electricity) 

 all that took place without the aid of fungi maggots, 

 &c; which seemingly were conequences rather than 

 tjauses of disease. Neither does it appear that much 

 could be ascribed to the efl\;cts of putrid efiluvia arisii)g 

 from the gi*uund. flowever ingenious this thcoiy may 

 be, it is not quite consonant with the sound, orthodox 

 doctrine usually noted in the Farmer's JVIagazine, 

 The probability rather is, that the meliorated state of 

 the soil from being moistened after a long period of 

 warm weather, luid yielded an excess of nutriment in 

 a dv-grec someu hat similar to what prevents the filling 

 of grain growing on dunghills, as well as the rank tufts 

 often seen in fields, neither of which ever fill perfectly. 

 In all these casc5, the impediment so obviously owing 



