82 



Steeping Seed- Wheat. 



VOL.V. 



But in the midst of this uncertainty, John 

 Lawrance comes forth, the champion of a 

 new doctrine; and, whatever might be the 

 result, in his peculiarly simple and lucid mode 

 of argument, there can be no mistake or mis- 

 understanding, lie says, 



" The effects of blight and smut, upon 

 grain and vegetables of all kinds, are too 

 common and well known to need description, 

 but it is far difi'erent with the cause, to which, 

 in my opinion, custom has assigned a most 

 fanciful origin. To suppose that grain caught 

 blight or smuttiness from the seed, is, per- 

 haps, about as rational as to attribute an acci- 

 dental cold, to a defect in the parental con- 

 etitution of the patient ; and to steep the 

 eeed-grain, with the view of preserving the 

 future crop from smut, is a proceeding equally 

 eage, as if a man should apply to Dr. Brad- 

 ley, or to any other Doctor of equal celebrity, 

 for a medicine to be taken at Gunpowder 

 Treason,* in order to cure a cold, which may 

 possibly attack him the summer next ensuing ! 

 Now, all these affections, under whatever 

 term, originate in obstructed circulation and 

 tlie corruption of the vegetable juices; and 

 the immediate causes are, sudden changes of 

 the atmosphere from opening heat to pinching 

 cold, which instantaneously close up the vege- 

 table pores, and obstruct the circulation of 

 the sap ! Now, should these causes of the 

 diseases approve themselves legitimate, both 

 in theory and experience, to wliat end are we 

 troubling our heads with others, which can 

 pretend to no certain ground whatever 1 How 

 happened it witli the crops before brining and 

 liming came into fashion? It was then held, 

 according to Tull, tliat a good season would 

 cure the smut — the obvious interpretation of 

 which is, that the matter depends entirely on 

 tlie season. 



In the year 1725, there was a general 

 blight, which affected all the wheat alike, 

 steeped or unsteeped ; and I have known a 

 field of wheat, the seed of which had been 

 fashionably brined and doctored, blighted in 

 those parts most exposed, particularly in those 

 ears which stood up erect above the rest,f 

 whilst the lower ears escaped ; and it ap- 

 peared plain, to demonstration, that the shel- 

 tered grain, or that which was fortunately 

 out of the reach of the atmospheric stroke, 

 owed little thanks to the doctor ; while, to 

 the exposed and blighted, there could be no 

 longer any question about the power of pre- 

 vention in the steep. And how often have 

 experimenters found their brined seed blighted 



*The 5th of November. 



t A writer ohjects, " You attribute smut, blight, &c., 

 to a defect in tlie crop — now this cannot be the cause, 

 for the largest, tallest, and finest ears of my crop of 

 tlie present year are most aflected ; the lower ears have 

 generally escaped." 



or smutted, whilst their unbrined has escaped ! 

 And how often is even a part of a plant 

 blighted, and part left sound 1 I have been 

 informed by a man, who farmed near half a 

 century, that he could never discover any 

 difTcrencc, but that his dressed seed was 

 equally liable with that which he sowed in 

 its natural state ; nay, that he had never 

 scrupled to sow smutty wheat, from which he 

 had grown as pure grain as from the purest 

 seed ! 



Bradley, who was a whimsical and inac- 

 curate reasoner, after a string of windy spe- 

 culations on the cause of blight, and as know- 

 ing a prescription for the cure of smut — such 

 an one as could be furnished by any one of 

 us of the present day — concludes with. Note, 

 ' Many farmers steep their wheat in brine, 

 and yet have plenty of smutty wheat, be- 

 cause they do not make their brine strong 

 enough, and take their seed out too soon.' 

 When Dr. Sangrado's patients died, in spite 

 of the infallible specific, he also declared, 

 their misfortune arose because they had not 

 been dosed enough ! 



Now, that no evil accident of the winds or 

 dews does often occur to blight or discolour a 

 crop of wheat, is, happily, a common case ; 

 many believe that these blights are drawn to 

 the fatal spot by barberry, or other deleteri- 

 ous bushes ; but Mr. Marshall's grave account 

 of the effects of the marvellous barberry-bush 

 of Norfolk, has the following unfortunate 

 conclusion. ' The tail (of the blighted strip) 

 pointed towards the south-west, so that pro- 

 bably the effect took place during a north- 

 east wind' — no doubt it did ; but if this bush 

 could act as a conductor to the wind, any 

 other might perform the same office ; for we 

 know too well, that, in order to blight strips 

 of grain, larger or smaller in length and di- 

 mensions, the north-east wind does not need 

 either barberry or ^oose-berry bushes as con- 

 ductors ! But even the sagacious Tull him- 

 self, has fallen in with the popular notion, 

 and, with his antagonist Bradley, he mistakes 

 the effect for the cause — supposing blight to 

 be occasioned by insects, instead of attribut- 

 ing the generation of insects to the corrup- 

 tion consequent upon blights — a thing which 

 admits of ocular proof. 



Before I dismiss this subject, however, I 

 would wish to be clearly understood : I by 

 no means take upon me to assert the utter 

 incapacity of infection in the smut of wheat, 

 or the literal impossibility of an importation 

 of flies from Hesse or Norway, but their im- 

 probability only, and want of foundation in 

 experiment or fact. I should counsel no one 

 to trust to unsound seed, when sound may be 

 obtained, or, in case of necessity, to make 

 use of tlie former, without taking every pos- 

 sible method to wash and purify it ; for which 



