1850. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



83 



Society in New York. — That unique and origi- 

 nal weelily, the Home Journal, is translating Df. 

 Trobriand's articles on fashionable life in New 

 York. The accomplished reducieur makes the New 

 York ball a very poor affair, intellectually, as com- 

 pared with the reunions of Paris. He says that the 

 "young American, on his entrance into society, has 

 often but one recommendation, the talent with which 

 his tailor has endowed the cut of his coat." Also, 

 that a man of mature age " is isolated in the gay 

 throng, meeting rarely a woman worth seeing or 

 talking to, and more rarely still a woman who finds 

 as much charm in conversation as in waltzing — he 

 soon gives it up, and balancing one ennui against 

 another, he prefers that which does not give him the 

 trouble of dressing, and which he can find weapons 

 to contend with at home — pen or books, if his mind 

 is active, and sleep if he has no faculty for anything 

 but business." 



The Season. — This has been one of the most 

 open, mild winters, known for many a year. The 

 first snow fell early, and in the mud ; this froze hard, 

 making a good bottom for subsequent snows. No 

 one here remembers a winter with so many w-eeks 

 good sleighing during moderate weather and frequent 

 rains. Our farmers are now hauling out their manure, 

 ,,a much easier process in cold, stimulating, March 

 weather, than under an enervating April or May sun, 

 to say nothing of the gain in time, from the lack of 

 which, when too much work is crowded together, 

 more than one field has had to go half tilled. An 

 amateur farmer here has been occasionally, all winter, 

 hauling manure from our livery stables to his little 

 sandy farm. It may be said that he cleaned the 

 Augean, as he went to the bottom of.a hole or swale 

 at the back of a range of stables, taking up the nitro- 

 genous matter which, like guano, was improved by 

 ago and concentration. Watedoo, March, 1850. 



SALT AND ARSENIC. 



Mrssrs. Editors : — In the January nuuibcr of your 

 most valuable paper appear two articles reocommend- 

 ing the general use of salt as a manure, with the 

 addition of a little arsenic when the land is infected 

 to any extent with wire-worms and other destructive 

 vermin. As your correspondents are not sufliiciently 

 explicit as regards the use of the latter article, per- 

 mit mo to inquire whether a larger quantity than that 

 spoken of by Mr. Park of Gates, in his first article, 

 would not more efiectually attain the desired object? 

 That gentleman says he applied the small proportion 

 of two pounds of arsenic to two barrels of salt. Now, 

 as arsenic is not a dear article, I would be obliged if 

 Dr. Lkb would inform me if it contains any proper- 

 ties which could possibly have an injurious effect on 

 vegetation. In Mr. Park's second article, in the 

 same paper, he says that a peck might be sown advan- 

 tageously, but does not say on how much land to 

 apply that quantity. I presume an acre — quite dif- 

 ferent from ttco pounds. If assured that arsenic 

 would not have a Dad effect, I would be disp_oscd to 

 make a trial of its virtues, or rather poisons. With 

 due care, no danger to cattle need be apprehended. 



I would thank Mr. Park on behalf, I doubt not, of 

 many of your readers, for his interesting articles 

 referred to. We of the Cataract county would be 

 happy to hear from him again on the same, or any 

 other subject. R. H. J. — L,ockport, Feb'y, 1850. 



ltl|)cat <5nsbaniirs. 



ON SMUT IN WHEAT, AND THE CAUSE OF IT. 



NUMBER III. 



In my former articles I gave a statement of tacts. A leisure 

 moment affords me an opportunity of giving my theory, 

 founded on those facts. 



I suppose the smut bug (or its prerodent worm) to remain 

 in the ground in a torpid state, during t!ie winter, like tho 



fruit curculio. When the spring opens witli suffi- 

 cient warmth, it revives and eommenees its work of destruc- 

 tion by attacking the roots of the young wheat. I am led 

 to believe this ttie more readily because, as stated in my tirst 

 article, I have invariably found the vitality of the roots of 

 the smut wheat destroyed by some worm or insect ; and I 

 can imagine none so likely to cammenn; the destructive pro- 

 cess as that which contp/etes it, liy its operatio'is on ttie grains 

 in the ear. It therefore probably feeds on the bark, or outer 

 covering of the roots, until tlie time of the earing, or " head- 

 ing out." Those plants which have been thus injured, 

 generally tlirow up feeble stems, with small ears, not having 

 received the proper quantity of nourishment from the roots. 

 \8 soon as the ear appears above the sheath, and when it 

 may be supposed to be iu a critical stale of gestntiou, the 

 bug leaves the rooti (the bark of wiiich has become too 

 tougli, or too scanty, to supply il willi suitable food,) and 

 climb's the stem to tho r-ir. vji r,- il <■ i:i-'i um ,ir< ii , ,'. ..true- 

 live operations by perbir 'i ; i', i '. i i , i ■ .rain, 



MiKst-inrr of the 

 .'.n-l nn! iril food 



■ f tho 



ably injures tiic ^^Ip ■'! ■ ■■ 



the grains witli tli : 



part,) and ratisi . m 



grain. This ciiaii.- r ,,. 



of the bu^. halso b.^n 



sition and nurium of tlio 



change in t!ie grriin to h.- 



case, or ohri/f. nn 1 '',r-- i; i^' :■! ■ mt <ir p-l' ' .. I \tn\v now 



in my pos.sL-s.siiiii . 1 ■ '-.in wliicli ihi-rc ..le rn my grains 



of ymiU nnil gu'ri i : ' ; ■ ,i'i[!;Ie'i ; and a!-'- ■■v.Tal cars 



in which the gr.uii- iiir ,Mri niiii mul part gooi. inrin;-*. — some 



about Imlf and halt; an i ^^niv^ more or \i-ss of each. 



It has been conj^ctiuv^d by several '.vriU'r.; on ihi.^ subject, 

 iliat a radiciU cliange in the plant \^ ('\\'erU\] by ilip operation 

 of some latent poisonous prinri't!^-, bi r)re ilw e.uing out. 

 One writer (I>LH \^.f^;L) has rttulcd hf ••foan.l tlie enr^ smutted 

 as early as Mnnh or A))ril, npnii ear.fiilly npr-ning the hood, 



blade 



' (hi 



jar: 



"J a:, 



nek I 



lengtir ! Anolh.-r (Tii.i.vt) ^■^\9, ■■ the smutted heads or 

 ears c.-in oftontim,-s \.q r.und nlid.'d in (he hood," &-.c.— 

 Spali.an/,ani ■• f(>:,ind (or suppn'^n,] h.- foimJ) that the smut 

 was produced in the i>l:iii!- Imi'.: in^'i-;.' the impregntition.'* 

 Whence Dar\mn coih ln-l> l. : i ;'. i ,r want of impregna- 

 tion, or the vivifying priii-i,''. t'. ■ w'ir.i.: v..n-n ini<;hl putri fy, 

 as is the ca.se with addled t ---,.' vVr. 



With a knowledge of llie faetf stated in my form r num- 

 bers, it is impossible f>r me to believe thai the grain could 

 have been r^mutted by any " vitiating principle in the air,'' 

 when the ear wit,^ n.it more !b:-n the .si\lh ]i:;rt of an inch in 

 length, and still " in the hood ;" or th'st smut wa.s produced 

 from ** nnseasonalde rni I and wet." l-'or. in either case. I 

 must suppose that a disparted Aul>- of the stem, or ear, would 

 so operate upon ail the .^ap vi\'ws('U. iis to produce a change 

 in a// the grains in ih.- .a,-, ur :;• I-,i.^: of the whole of e^h 

 grain nil'cctvd by ihe disr:..-t'. 'J'liat there is a eonsta'nl cir- 

 culation of ihf sap in plants whiln growing, in .«nnie decree 

 similar to the eii-ealaiion of the blind in thp animal creation, 

 I presume no one will deny. Such being the case, it is diffi- 

 cult to imagine how one pari of a grain can be ^ood and the 

 other bad, when the same sap in circulated and distributed 

 to each section in precisely the same manner. 1 have little 

 confidence in the statements of the discovery of smut at so 

 early a stage in the growth «f the plant — in the tine-spun 

 theories respecting the cause of smut, I have none at all. 

 My observations have convinced me that the change in the 

 grain is produced after the earivg, or " heading out,"' and 

 while the germ of the grain is expanding. In cases where 

 the grain is wholly smutted, I suppose the perforation to 

 have been made at so early a period, that the germ being 

 very small it is wholltj aHected and changed into eraut. 

 When the grain is only in yart smutted. I suppose the nit to 

 have been deposited at so late a period as to injure the part 

 of the grain immediately around it ; and that the other pnrt 

 of the grain being too much hardened lo be operated upon, 



