THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



' The Productions of the Earth will always be in proportion to the culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. v.— No. 13.] 



7th mo. (July,) 15th, 1841. 



[Whole No. 78. 



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 Price one dollar per year.— For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Blight. 



The deep interest which the subject of the 

 Blight on Wheat must necessarily induce in 

 the minds of reflecting agriculturists, is not 

 abated by the very able manner in which it 

 is handled by one or two writers in your 

 valuable paper. The human mind does not 

 steadily advance in any one direction ; we 

 must make good our advances in the field of 

 science by a diligent occupation of the ground 

 thus attained, ere we can again proceed for- 

 ward. Thus, many years have now elapsed 

 since the demonstrative treatise of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, showing that "the blight on wheat is 

 occasioned by the growth of a minute para- 

 sitic fungus on the leaves, stem, and glumes 

 of the living plant." This fact, at the time 

 of writing (1804,) was new to the agricul- 

 tural community, though long known to bo- 

 tanists. Since the publication of this treatise, 

 but little advance has been made in ascer- 

 taining the cause and cure of blight, mildew, 

 &c., in wheat. There are two ways of de- 

 termining a question of this character, — two 

 modes of investigation. The one is by a 

 careful analysis of all the facts of the case, 

 thence deducing the general principle; the 

 other, to originate by reflection a general 

 principle, and test its truth by its application 

 to facts. I confess that I am one of those 

 speculative drones who love to assume my 

 principles before I handle my facts ; and I am 

 always delighted when a writer presents me 

 a reason in advance of his facts. Such has 

 been the (to my mind) rational course of your 

 correspondent " Vir," who advances the idea, 

 that these diseases (mildew, smut, &c.) arise 

 from the essentially unhealthy growth and 

 condition of the plant; thereby presenting, 

 when in conjunction with atmospheric causes, 

 those favourable circumstances which gene- 

 rate the fungus plant ; and that this unhealthy 

 habit is owing to improper culture. Now for 



Cab.— Vol. V No. 12. 



the appeal to facts ; and in this I shall scarce- 

 ly go out of the columns of the Cabinet. 



The first writer on the subject to which 

 my attention is directed, is "J. P.," (vol. 3, 

 No. 9,) who confines his views to the atmo- 

 spheric causes, and ridicules the progeny of 

 barberry bushes, the fungus, &c. And first, 

 though it is scarcely necessary, now, to re- 

 peat the argument, let me remark, that the 

 moisture of the atmosphere, instead of tend- 

 ing to deposit the seeds of fungi, presents the 

 only condition of its vegetation in the wheat 

 plant. For, first, these seeds are " not much 

 heavier than air, as every one who has trod 

 upon a ripe puff-ball must have observed:" 

 here Banks argues by analogy, which is cer- 

 tainly favourable to the comparative lightness 

 of the parasitic plant in question. Second, 

 " the striped appearance of the surface of a 

 straw which may be seen by a common mag- 

 nifying glass, is caused by alternate longi- 

 tudinal partitions of the bark; the one imper- 

 forate, and the other furnished with one or 

 two rows of pores or mouths, shut in dry, 

 open in wet weather, and well calculated to 

 imbibe fluid whenever the straw is damp. 

 By these pores, it is presumed that the seeds 

 of the fungus gain admission." Hence, while 

 the comparative lightness of the seeds ena- 

 bles them to rise and float in the air, the 

 moisture prepares the wheat for their recep- 

 tion. Now, either Banks (president of the 

 Royal Society, and an eminent natural histo- 

 rian) forged his facts, or the rust in wheat is 

 identical with the fungus. But not to waste 

 time ; J. P. sets in array a number of facts 

 against the idea of a fungus growth, but has 

 failed to perceive that while some do strong- 

 ly corroborate the atmospheric doctrine, they 

 nearly all powerfully sustain the proposition, 

 that other anterior causes predispose the plant 

 to the atmospheric influence ; or if he have 

 suspected it, has not plausibly set it forth. 



The next writer to whom I refer, is Jacob 

 List, (vol. 4, No. 11,) who insists that the 

 plant is first ruptured in its vessels, " either 

 from the luxuriant flow of the sap upon the 

 tender tops of the plant being checked by 

 cold winds, or an unhealthy overfulness, or 

 some other casual obstruction." He adduces 

 Knight's experiment of crossing different va- 

 rieties of wheat, the new sort being free from 

 rust ; but why he sneers at the inference, I 



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