62 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



4' 



Mar. (f 



I 



the vaiue of Indian com as a palatable and econom- 

 ical article of food, is j\ist beginning to be known in 

 Great Britain. In fact, we are told that tlie only 

 jjerfect srticie of Indian raeai of the true sweet nutty 

 liavcr yet tateTS ihore was imported into England on 

 the cob. 



F«ir many years 1 have supposed that fresh barn- 

 yard n'-sisiinj well worked into a rich calcareous clay 

 soil to ae plaiited v.ith com, Nvould enable the crop 

 to stand our sainnior drouth better than old and well 

 rotted iBan"i;rc ; but She experiment of the past season 

 proTOS ntht-nvise. Last i--pring I put iii> manure on 

 iny corn patch. The drouth in July and August 

 was the most trying, 1 have known for many years ; 

 yet not a corn leaf rolled. I never saw more corn, 

 cr more perfect csrs, grow on the same extent of 

 surface. Had this patch been manured as usual, the 

 temperatute of the soil would have been increased 

 during the fenr.cntation of tlie manure in the hot 

 weather of the long- dn-vutb, and the evaporation would 

 have been gJ'eat ; as it was, tlie manure applied the 

 previous spring now performed in the soil the office 

 of well rotted manure. Stirring the soil often during 

 the drouth, let in the oxygen of the atmosphere, which 

 readily formed viater with the hydrogen of the decayed 

 humus. For seireral previous years, my corn being 

 maKarsd with fresh stable dung, its leaves rolled 

 during the drouth, and many ears did not fill. But 

 I would advise farmers to manure with unfermented 

 msauro this spring, as the probability is that after 

 so many dry seasons the next will be cold and wet, 

 when a necessary increased temperature in the soil 

 can only he attained by draining or the application 

 of fermenting manures ! S. W. — tf'atertoOfJV.Y., 

 FeVy, ISoO. 



OK SMtJT IW WHEAT, AND THE CAUSE OF IT. 



Messrs. Editors : — This being a season of the year 

 when practical farmers have the most leisure time 

 during the day, with long winter evenings in which 

 to read, reflect, and learn the ways of men and things, 

 I propose to furnish for your useful and widely circu- 

 lated paper"a few communications, containing state- 

 rcents o{ /ads in relation to agricultural matters, as 

 t)jey '• came to pass" with me, together with such 

 inferences ar<d opinions as 1 have formed upon those 

 facts ; and inasmuch as 1 have recently observed in 

 liewspapcrs some publications in which the old, 

 absunl, and (as ] hnd believed) exploded hypothesis 

 of the "/im^Kj" orijjn of smut in wheat is revived 

 and inculcated, 1 wil begin with that subject. 



During the Vv-inter of 1833, while spending some 

 moalhs in Albany, I wrote and published in the 

 Albany Aj^us a series of articles, containing my 

 observations and experiments continued through 

 several successive years, in relation to the "cause 

 of smnt." Tho:5e articles were written in the plain, 

 coiniDon language of the country, (as all svch com- 

 ainxieotioias shaiUd he,) and addressed to "practical 

 /iotscys," as being the persons most immediately 

 interested in the subject matter of them. A series of 

 experiments, continued through the past s/x/^cn years, 

 has in every respect corroborated the statements 

 made in my former publications on this subject. 1 

 will, therefore, here request you to insert those arti- 

 cles as follows : 



NUMBER I. 



I have road many csaaya on Ihe subject of the smut in 

 vrheal, and olmosl every writer has invented a new hypoth- 

 esis as lo lUe cause of iu In tlie refintmerU of tlieir theories, 



(like philosophers in most other speculations,) they have, in 

 my opinion, wholly " overstepped the modesty of nature," 

 in their vague conjectures about " ntvisibte ijisects,'' vUiathig 

 piincipips m the air^" "diseases arismg from uriseasoitable 

 cold and w^t,'^ and that snuU is of an animal nature, &,c., &:c. 

 None of these theories or conjectures were satisfactory to my 

 mind , hut as I had not suflieient information to enable mo to 

 controvert them, or even with any propriety to question them, 

 until very recently, I have remained silent, hoping tliat sorao 

 one more capable than myself, would undertake a series of 

 observations and experiments, which might result in a dis- 

 covery of the true cause. Not being aware that any one has 

 done so, and believing that some facts in my p' ssession 

 relating to this evil may be of service lo intelliger farmers, 

 (by drawing their attention to it, if in no othej i*espect, ) 1 

 wiil proceed to state them. It is perhaps proper here to 

 premise, that for several years previous to 183U my wheat 

 crop had been considerably atTected by smut ; but by letting 

 it remain in the field, micut, until it was thoroughly, or dead 

 ripe, the smut grains became so perfectly dry, that when 

 the crop was threshed, they were very nearly all broken. 

 The dust was cleaned out by the fanning mill, leaving the 

 wheat entirely free from the smut usually found slicking to 

 the "doiwn/' end of the grain. In the summer of 1S30, lind- 

 ing that ray wheat had an unusual quantity of smut in it, I 

 determined, if possible, to discover the cause of it. I com- 

 menced ray operations by pulling up the stools of the smut 

 whcatand examining the roots. In all oases (and I examined 

 a very great number) 1 found the roots mouldy and rotten, the 

 outer covering or *' bark '' had evidently been eaten oif by 

 some worm or insect; but of what kind, I was unable to ascer- 

 l-Tin. After several days of fruitless examination, I accidental- 

 ly discovered on one of the smut ears a very small ash colored 

 bug, about an eighth ofaninchin length, sonielliing less than 

 a line in diameter, and about a line in height. It appeared to 

 be busily employed in gnawing its way into the husk or chaff 

 of one of the smut grains ; m a few moments it perforated 

 the chaff, and began to feed greedily on the smut grain 

 within. My curiosity was excited by seeing that little insect 

 feasting, with much apparent satisfaction, upon a substance 

 that I had always supposed no animal in the world would 

 eat. After some retleclion, it occurred lo me that man/ 

 animals appear to have an innate knowledge or instinct, 

 which poiiited out to them the best mode of preparing their 

 food ; and observing that this bug seemed lo be feeding on^ 

 its natural aliment. I determined to make some experiments 

 for the purpose of ascertaining what agency (if any) this 

 species of bug had in the production of smut. On a careful 

 examination. I found one or more bugs ©n almost all the smut 

 ears. A day or two afterwards, I took a small clean glass 

 bottle, into which, after much care and trouble, I succeeded 

 in putting three or four smut ears with about a dozen htigs 

 on them ; a paper cover was then tied over the mouth of the 

 tjt>ttle so closely that no insect could get in or out. The 

 bugs continued to feed on the smut grains for about three 

 weeks, when they all died. Thinking it probable that they 

 had deposited their nits or eggs in the smut grams. I took 

 the smut ears and dead bugs cut of the liottlc, cleansed it 

 thoroughly, brushed the dirt off the ears, and again put them 

 into the bottle, which was closed as before. Within about 

 four weeks 1 had a considerable number of young bugs 

 hatched out, which immediately began to feed on the remain- 

 ing smut grains. I kepi them several weeks, unlill during 

 autumn they all died also. 



NUMBER II. 



During the summer of ISIJl, I again found that my wheat 

 was smutty, and repeated my experiments upon the same 

 species of bug, (mentioned in my first number,) of which I 

 found great numbers on the smul ears. .As in the jireceding 

 year, I put as many of the smut ears, with the bugs on them, 

 in my bottle as it wituld conveniently hold : as bclbre, the 

 bugs all died in the course of three or four weeks. I llien 

 carefully examincil many of the smut grains, in nearly all of 

 which I found a small maggot or worm, riome were about 

 an eighth ol an inch iu length, and in iliaincter nearly as 

 large as the parent bugs ; others were smaller, and several 

 so small as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye. In some 

 of the grains I could not discover any maggots, I prrsurao 

 because they were too minute 10 he visible to the naked eye, 

 anil 1 had :io hris with v%liii'h to examine them. The 

 remaining .'.iiiiil grains were left uulouched in the oara, put 

 into the bottle agiiiu, and in two weeks I again had another 

 full crop of bugs hatched out. These last, with the smut 

 ears in which they were bred, I now have in my possession. 

 A few days after I had found the bugs in my bottle were 



