84 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



I 



produces good farina or flour. Ah the bug is slow in its 

 operations (and but ime perhaps on on car) it may be, and 

 probably is. Beveraldaya in perforating the grains in a single 

 ear. In such cases, some of the grains perhaps are not per- 

 forated at all. and of course are not affected, while others in 

 the same ear are enth-eh/ or ht part smutted. Whether the 

 bug. when it deposites the nit or egg, leaves with it some 

 pvisonous matter for its sustenance, which produces the 

 change in grain, or whether the nit very soon becomes a 

 worm, tchicli nfslles m the gram, and thus produces it, I do 

 not know. 



When I wrote those articles for the Argus, I had 

 no very definite opinion as to the particular manner 

 in which the smut was formed by the operations of 

 the "bug," (or "beetle," as some fastidious learned 

 people insist upon calling the insect.) It will be 

 perceived that in my third article I gave it as a svp- 

 positioii that " the bug, or its precedent worm, when 

 revived by the warmth of the spring, commenced its 

 work of destruction by attacking the roots of the 

 young wheat.'" From subsequent e.xaniinations, I am 

 convinced that that conjecture was not well founded. 

 I am now perfectly satisfied that the excoriations of 

 the roots of the wheat were made by the 'Hmre-tvorm,'' 

 which has for the last twenty-five or thirty years 

 destroyed so much of our wheat ; but which has 

 generally been supposed to have been " MHed by the 

 winter." That the ova, or larva, of the smut insect 

 remains, during the winter, dormant in the smut 

 grain, as an egg or worm, there can be no doubt. 

 The unexpected result of carrying the smut grains 

 into my wheat field with the barn-yard manure, as 

 stated in my second article, appears to afi'unl suffi- 

 cient proof of this. As great numbers assume the 

 insect form in the fall, they probably pass the winter 

 in that state, and, like other insects, revive in the 

 spring. However this may be, those which I hatched 

 all died after a few weeks spent in feeding on the 

 smutted grains contained in the bottle with them. 



From all the investigations which I have been 

 enabled to make, in relation to the manner in which 

 the smut is produced by tlic operations of the insect, 

 it is this : It perforates the glume (chaff ease) of 

 the grain, and deposits its "nit,'' or " egg." On the 

 outside of the chafi" case the puncture closes up, (as 

 do, generally, the lips of a punctured wound in flesh ;) 

 but in the inside the wound or puncture is kept open 

 by the oozing in of the undigested sap of the plant, 

 which runs into the unfilled cavity of the glume and 

 fills it with sm^it, which is nothing more nor less than 

 the crude or unprepared sap of the plant thus ^rcma- 

 turely let in where good flour would liave been formed 

 if the sap had been left undisturbed, to pursue its 

 ordinary course of preparation and circulation through 

 the natural channels or sup vessels. And when one 

 part only of the grain is smutted and the otlier part 

 is good flour, it is, as suggested in my third article, 

 becau.<e the perforation was made at so late a period 

 that a portion of the cavity (less or more) had been 

 already filled with properly prepared sap, (flour,) 

 iiiul but a part loft unoccupied, but which was filled 

 with undigested sap (smut) immediately after the 

 puncture was made ; both operations, that of I'orining 

 good flour and the other of forming smut, no doubt 

 going on nt the same time ; the latter, however, 

 probably proceeding much the most rapidly. 



Having, as I confidently believe, fully established 

 the fact tliat smut in wheal is caused by the opera- 

 tions of an insect, and having discovered and identified 

 that insect, I will proceed to consider as to the best 

 means to be used as preventive remedies. And here 



April 



I will confess that I have not any great degree of 

 confidence that after the insect has been for several 

 years an inhabitant of a farm, there is, or can be 

 found, any certain and immediate preventive remedy 

 for the evil, by the destruction of the insect, or other- 

 wise. I have practiced several modes of preparing 

 the seed wheat — at one time washing it with water ; 

 at another, soaking it in very strong lime water for 

 twelve hours or more ; in a third instance, w'etting 

 the wheat and mixing quick lime with it. Neither 

 of these modes of preparation entirely prevented smut 

 in the produce. The smut insect had become an 

 established inhabitant of my farm, and I found it 

 almost impossible to turn it out of the possession. 

 At length, however, I tried another plan. The 

 heavy chaff and '"tailings" of the cleanings of my 

 wheat, containing the unbroken smut grains, (with, 

 of course, the nits or eggs of the insect in them,) I 

 carefully carried from the barn and destroyed them, 

 so that none of the smut grains went into the manure. 

 Particular care, also, was taken to sow no seed which 

 had a grain of smut in it. This course was pursued 

 for several successive years, and, after some twenty 

 years of observations, experiments, and exertions to 

 free my wheat from smut, I succeeded in raising 

 good and clean wheat generally, but not always — 

 occasionally I have found my old enemy smutting my 

 wheat again. It probably strayed over into my fields 

 from some neighboring farm ; for, since the wheat in 

 this vicinity was first discovered to have become 

 smutty, the evil has occurred, I believe, in some local- 

 ity or other, every year, in a greater or less degree. 

 Notwithstanding all my care and exertion to free my 

 wheat from smut, I am not at all sure but ihat nature 

 had as much toj;lo with my success as I had myself. 

 I believe it is generally understood that some seasons 

 are not as favorable to the reproduction of insects as 

 others. Cold and wet weather no doubt destroys 

 many of the young insects after they are warmed 

 into life. Severe winter frosts may also do the work 

 by freezing and addling the eggs. It is also asserted 

 (and I believe truly,) Ihut parasitical insects deposit 

 their nits in other insects, which being hatched out, 

 prey upon and destroy those that have thus served 

 them for nests and food. Some one, or perhaps all 

 of these causes combined, may have contributed to 

 produce the desired result. Be this as it may, I am 

 perfectly satisfied that the course which I pursued 

 was the best, and indeed, the only one at all likely to 

 be successful. If the smut grains are thrown into 

 the barn-yard, and thence carried out upon the farm 

 in the manure, I do not think it possible to free a 

 farm from the smut insect. The insect appears to 

 be brought to maturity at the time that the wheat is 

 usually earing, or " heading" out, and the deposit of 

 the nit, or egg, is commenced immediately thereafter. 

 Early sown wheat generally fares the best : probably 

 because of its "heading" out before the insect is 

 ready to commence its operations. But if sown very 

 early, for the purpose of having it ear or "head" out 

 before the maturity of the smut insect, it is frequently 

 attacked in the autunm by the " Hessian fly :" and 

 thus, by attempting to escape one evil, we run into an- 

 other oftentimes much worse : for the "Hessian fly' 

 is generally far more destructive than the smut insect 

 — the former fretjuently destroys the whole crop, the 

 latter never destroys more than a minor portion of it. 

 At the same time, however, if the grain is cut before 

 it becomes " dead " ripe, it is very much injured by 

 the grains being blackened by the dust of the smut 



I 



