ON THE BLIGHT IN WHEAT. 



25 



ON THE Blight in wheat.. 

 ( Continued fro7n page 13. J 

 That class of plants which the botan- 

 ists call mosses and lichens, are reckoned 

 by this writer, the insects of the vegetable 

 kingdom, destined to jDrey on weak plants, 

 as insects of the animal kingdom are to 

 prey on weak animals. And in both cases 

 the remed}? must be looked for in the 

 natural health and vigour of the object. 



He then applies this argument to wheat 

 by considering the nature of the plant and 

 the kind of cultivation which usually 

 renders it protluctive, or as nature has 

 furnished the wheat plant with a double 

 set of roots so contrived that the first may 

 be deep enough to enable it to stand the 

 severity of the winter, and the second so 

 shallow as to admit the genial iufluence 

 of the spring, it first shoots down a per- 

 pendicular tap root to keep it steady 

 through the winter, and in the spring til- 

 lers out a number of coronal roots, each 

 of which has alsoitn own proper root and 

 produces its own ear, though still adher- 

 ing to the former root, and when this op- 

 eration is complete, the winter root be- 

 comes useless and decays; but if the win- 

 ter root be iinperfect, the side shoots will 

 be so likewise, for which reason a strong 

 solid foot hold for the tap root, is neces- 

 sary for wheat, and the more complete the 

 winter root, the more perfect the crop; in 

 like manner, if the 3^oimg plants be un- 

 equal, so will the ripening of the crop; and it 

 is generally found that blight takes the crop 

 while one part of the ear which is ripe, is 

 wasting for another part which is green. 



A thin crop of wheat and a late ripen- 

 ing crop are said to be the peculiar prey 

 of the blights, and these are generally 

 produced either by sowing the land witli 

 wheat which is unfit for it, or in an im- 

 proper stale of cultivation, or by sowing 

 it in an improper season. In short he gives 

 it as his opinion that any cause whicii 

 tends to weaken the plant, will predis- 

 pose it to receive the blight. 



Among the most obvious of these are 

 reckoned, 1st. sowing wheat on land that 

 has been so worn out by cropping as to 

 have lost that tenacity and cohesion, which 

 are so necessary to a wheat crop, and 

 which dung without rest, will not restore. 

 2. Sowing the land in a light loose state, 

 whereby the plants root too near the sur- 



face, and are liable to be injured by 

 the frosts and to have the roots laid bare 

 by the wind. 3. Sowing wheat too late 

 in autumn, especially in poor and exposed 

 situations, where the roots have not time 

 to establish themselves before winter 

 comes on, and vegetation is at a stand. As 

 these causes appear to him to have occur- 

 red more of late years than in preceding 

 times, he thinks there is much probability 

 in the assertion " the blight on wheat has 

 increased of late years." For it has not 

 been uncommon to sow land with wheat 

 every third, instead of every fourth or 

 fifth year, introducing in the interim a 

 system of crops exactly calculated to 

 make the land, light, whereby the crops 

 of wheat, though abundant in straw, have 

 not had strength enough to support them 

 till harvest, but have been laid by the 

 rain, and thereby become a prey to the 

 blight. And it has been more the prac- 

 tice lately to sow wheat after turnips, 

 which has been productive of clean crops, 

 but the wheat has been unavoidably sown 

 a month too late, and being consequently 

 late ripe, has been attacked by the blight. 

 Nor has it been an unfrequent prac- 

 tice to sow wheat after potatoes, which is 

 still worse, except in rich deep land, 

 where the plants will grow through the 

 whole of the winter, and the practice of 

 sowing wheat after clover is held to have 

 been carried to too great an extent, as it 

 encourages the slug and the wire-worm, 

 which destroy and weaken a considerable 

 portion of the wheat crop, and necessari- 

 ly render it more obnoxious to blight. If 

 then it can be proved (and Mr. Davis as- 

 serts that every farmer has observed it,) 

 that weak crops of wheat and particular- 

 ly of /«/e ri/?e crops are peculiarly sub- 

 ject to blight, he thinks it should be the 

 object of the husbandman to sow onlu 

 such land with wheat as is fit for wheat, 

 to get that ready early in summer, that 

 it may be close and firm before sowing, 

 to sow as early as the weather will per- 

 mit, and such kind of seed as will ripen 

 early, and above all, not to wear out his 

 land by too frequent repetitions of wheat 

 crop, since not the number of acres sown 

 but the number of bushels produced will 

 enrich the farmer, and supply the market. 

 Observations. These remarks on the 

 cause of the blight in wheat by a man 



