250 



Milderc. 



Vol. V 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Mildew, or Meldew. 



After readingf an essay in the last number 

 of the Cabinet headed "Blight on Wheat," I 

 was induced to read what numerous authors 

 had written on the subject of mildew, nist, 

 and blight; but on reflection, in regard to the 

 terms, it was thought best to expunge the 

 latter, as too general and indefinite to be ap- 

 plied to a specific form of disease, the char- 

 acter of which is well known to farmers, 

 though the cause is not well understood. We 

 say, familiarly, that any species of grain, 

 fruit, &c., that fails in arriving at perfection, 

 is blighted, without any reference to the 

 form, character or cause of the disease or ac- 

 cident, which has given rise to the failure. 



The term mildew, or meldeto, which I sus- 

 pect was the original word, is formed of the 

 word mcl, which means honey, and deio, 

 which needs no explanation ; the combined 

 term being, in plain English, knneydew, 

 which, no doubt, took its designation from a 

 sweet substance found on the surface of the 

 wheat after it became diseased, and which is 

 now believed to be the excrement of very 

 small insects, which attack the plant after 

 the hand of death has come upon it, and de- 

 composition has commenced. The term rust 

 needs no explanation to the farmer who has 

 once suffered by this form of disease in his 

 grain crop. These two terms indicate forms 

 of disease, both of which, it is believed, pro- 

 ceed from one common cause, and are only 

 slight modifications of the same disastrous 

 malady. 



Some of the authors which have been exa- 

 mii.dd, ascribe the disease to great heat, some 

 to hoar frost or cold after great heat, electri- 

 city, diseased seed, disease of the root of the 

 plants, the presence of the barberry bush, 

 fungi, insects, wind from particular quarters, 

 and various other causes, all equally unsatis- 

 factory. 



It is pleasant and satisfactory to be able to 

 trace the diseases, both of animals and vege- 

 tables, to their true cause, even if we should 

 not be enabled to prescribe a remedy for 

 them ; and upon reflection in regard to the 

 various circumstances connected with the 

 mildew in grain-crops, some thoughts have 

 arisen and have matured into opinions, which 

 I will throw into the common stock, that 

 farmers may judge of them, and see how far 

 they agree with their own experience and 

 observation. 



The conditions under which it is believed 

 that wheat arrives at the greatest perfection 

 are, a cool season and a reasonably dry atmo- 

 sphere at the time of the filling and matura- 

 tion of the grain ; it being assumed that the 

 soil is sufficiently moist to furnish the requi- 



site nutriment for a healthy state of the 

 plants. 



The summer of 1816 was of this descrip- 

 tion, and the wheat of that year was of ex- 

 traordinary weight and fineness; and what 

 was then considered of equal importance, the 

 crop, when brought to market, sold for three 

 dollars per bushel of 60 lbs., a price it has 

 never since commanded. A worthy farmer, 

 residing in Montgomery county, had that sea- 

 son an average of 32 bushels and 8 lbs. per 

 acre for his whole crop, and sold it for 3 dol- 

 lars per bushel, being a little more than 96 

 dollars per acre, and the farm on which it 

 grew cost him 24 dollars per acre some 

 twenty years previous. 



The circumstances, which are supposed to 

 be always present in a greater or less degree 

 when the crop becomes diseased with mil- 

 dew, are the following, viz: The atmosphere 

 saturated witii moisture, in the form of fog 

 or otherwise, a high temperature of the air, 

 and scarcely a breath of wind stirring, the 

 latter being a necessary consequence of the 

 former conditions, because, if the wind was 

 active, the moisture would be dissipated and 

 the heat rendered less sensible. In fact, such 

 weather as is familiarly known by the term 

 hot and muggy, and which sometimes relaxes 

 the human system to that degree that it 

 seems as if it was on the point of dissolving; 

 the reason being, that the air is so saturated 

 with moisture that it refuses to take up the 

 insensible perspiration from the surface of 

 the human body, and the heat, which would 

 necessarily go along with it, remains pent up 

 within us, without a possibility of escape, to 

 our great suffering and discomfort. 



There are other conditions of the crop, 

 which render the above circumstances more 

 certainly fatal, but it is doubted whether 

 alone they would be much detrimental in 

 producing mildew — such as a very succulent, 

 vigorous growth, produced by manuring too 

 highly, &c. 



Now for the theory ; the word I don't like 

 much, because farmers in general complain 

 so much about theories; but have them we 

 must, while men continue to think ; for if 

 we think about facts, we are constantly form- 

 ing theories, in spite of our wishes to the 

 contrary ; but theories are only bad or wrong 

 when they don't explain facts, and of this 

 every man must judge for himself. If theo- 

 ries are true and give sound reasons for 

 things, they are good theories, if not, they 

 are bad, and should be discarded without ce- 

 remony. 



All plants derive their nutriment from the 

 earth, and take it up in a state of very dilute 

 solution in water; this is elaborated in their 

 organs, in a way incomprehensible to us, and 

 deposited where it is needed, to promote the 



