No. 3. 



Steeping Seed-WJieat. — A Gem. 



83 



purpose I should deem a strong soap-ley equal 

 to any thing ; but as to steeping sound wheat 

 for the prevention of next year's blights, it is a 

 mere abracadabra, and stands upon the same 

 foundation of rationality with blessing a thorn 

 oat of the flesh ! But the ancients acted still 

 more unreasonably ; for in this case, when 

 charms of red cloth and the feathers and 

 heart of an owl, and all other such remedies 

 failed, they threatened their deities with 

 bloody axes ! I have tried various fructify- 

 ing steeps, solutions of nitre, sheep's dung, 

 and I know not what, but without the small- 

 est success." 



The following quotations are from Ellis : 

 Case 1st. " The sickness in wheat, happens 

 sometimes to only one side of the ear, while 

 the other parts of the ear remain sound, as 

 was once the case of a whole field of wheat, 

 at Hazelmere, in Surrey, when only the west 

 side of the ear was smutty, the rest free 

 tliroughout the field ; showing the disease to 

 be occasioned by an infectious wind " — the 

 east wind, of course. 



" Case 2d. A man having but one field, 

 it was sown for him with naked wheat-seed, 

 by a neighbouring farmer, who, wanting a 

 little more seed to finish the field, sent for 

 some of his own, that he had brined and 

 limed — the latter proved smutty, but the 

 former clean, although both were sown the 

 same day ; and, although it may be supposed 

 that the unbrined seed may be sound seed, 

 and the brined unsound, the result is of no 

 consequence but to prove, that brining is of 

 no utility in case of unsoundness. 

 "Case 3d. One of my neighbours, an an- 

 cient, curious farmer, not only changed his 

 seed, but brined and limed it well, yet in the 

 year 1740, he had a smutty crop — this seems 

 to be owing to a long frosty winter, cold 

 spring and dry summer.''^ 



The following experiment, by Sir John 

 Call, is extracted from the Board Communi- 

 cations, vol. 2, p. 428. " In the year 1797, 

 when my men were threshing out my wheat, 

 I desired them, as well as some of my neigh- 

 bours, to save all the ears they met wFth, 

 which were affected with smut ; thus collect- 

 ing all I could, previous to the beginning of 

 October ; I found some ears wholly decayed ; 

 some with one, two, or more grains, appa- 

 rently perfect, all which I caused to be rub- 

 bed out with the hand, into a bag of paper, 

 smut and all together; and, after mixing and 

 rubbing the grains in the smut, all I could 

 get perfect out of the smutty ears were 72 

 grains, which were carefully planted, and 

 marked, in a ridge amongst other wheat, in a 

 field then under tillage : their growth, from 

 the first, was similar to the rest of the field, 

 and the following is a certificate of its state 

 at harvest — signed by the Rector of the 



parish, and two farmers of the neighbour- 

 hood. 



' We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, 

 having been requested, by Sir J. Call, to 

 view and examine a field of wheat, then fit 

 for reaping, and to take notice if we saw any 

 difference in the appearance of some parts, 

 when compared with others, do declare, that 

 in a ridge, marked No. 2, (where 72 grains 

 of smutty wheat, after being rubbed out in a 

 bag and mixed up with tlie smut, and in that 

 state had been planted) we only found two 

 ears, out of about three hundred, which grew 

 out of the stalks from the smutty seed, that 

 had, apparently, smutty grains in them ; and 

 we found many smutty ears in other ridges 

 of the field ; so that it did not appear that tiie 

 smut had been in particular in that part. 



That, having examined a ridge, No. 5, 

 sown with shrivelled wheats, the crop ap- 

 peared as productive as any part of the field 

 that was sown with the best seed-wheat.' " 

 Signed. 



Aug. 2, 1798. 



The above experiment, on the back of so 

 many others of similar proof, is altogether 

 decisive with me, as to smut, which, in all 

 probability, has no more power of propaga- 

 tion, than has the rust of iron. But, grant- 

 ing the existence of the eggs of insects in 

 the seed-grain — tvhich is quite a distinct sub- 

 ject — a steep, or some other measure, is doubt- 

 less necessary for the purpose of destroying 

 thorn, although it can have no possible effi- 

 cacy in the prevention of blights from the in- 

 clemency of the weather ; but even this can 

 possibly be better effected upon a kiln, where 

 a degree of heat might be given, sufficient to 

 destroy animal life, without, in the smallest 

 degree, injuring the vegetative power ; for 

 TuU tells us of an " honest yeoman, who 

 practised kiln-drying wheat, in order that it 

 might be protected from the weevil, who 

 would show that every grain of it would 

 grow, after being kept seven years." T. 



A Gem. 



Woman. — Nature has given woman an in- 

 fluence over man more powerful than his 

 over her : from birth to death he takes help 

 and healing from her hand, under all the most 

 touching circumstances of life; her bosom 

 soothes him in manhood, and supports him in 

 sickness and in age. Such influence as this, 

 beginning at the spring of life and acting in 

 all its most trying moments, must deteriorate 

 or improve man's character — must diminish 

 or increase his happiness, according to the 

 moral and intellectual gradation of wom.an: 

 thus, upon her improvement in imrticular, 

 depends human improvement in general. 



