On the Rust or Mildew. 67 



ease, would only yield a proper quantity of food, when it had fifty 

 to nourish. There is no tillering -, which necessarily produces weaker 

 plants, liable to disease. By thick sowing in drills, all the advan- 

 tages of treading, in so far as respects rust or mildew* will be obtain- 

 ed, for the roots of the plants will be short and numerous, and mat- 

 ted together, instead of being long and straggling. 



It is proper here to allude to a communication of much moment, 

 from which it appears, that in former times, when four bushels of wheat 

 per acre were sown, the mildew was of much rarer occurrence, than 

 since the practice of thin sowing has been adopted * ; and there can 

 hardly be a doubt, if the land is in good order ; if the crop is sown 

 early ; if four bushels of seed are sown under the drilling system ; and 

 if the wheat is preceded by a green crop, so as to exhaust the perni- 

 cious qualities of the dung, that the crop of wheat will not be rusted. 



It ie proper to add on this subject, that it is much more prudent, 

 to rely on the abundance of seed, than on the effects of tillering. 

 When the latter is depended upon, during the time that the process 

 is going on, much time must be lost, in the growth of the plant to 

 maturity. The consequence is, both a later, and a more unequal 

 ripening. 



5. As wheat is not an indigenous, but an exotic plant, it might be 

 less liable to disease, if the seed were occasionally changed by impor- 

 tations from foreign countries. The best Flemish farmers, regularly 

 change their seed every two years, and assert, " that by this renewal 

 " of seed, all the maladiesof grain are prevented." Some purchase 

 their seed from d'Armentiere, near Lisle, in French Flanders, while 

 others recommend wheat grown in the Polders, (a species of salt 

 marsh) in Holland, by means of which, they maintain, that the rust 

 is a voided j. 



It is likewise stated, on the respectable authority of an eminent na- 

 turalist, (T. A. Knight, Esq.) that by crossing different varieties of 

 wheat, a new sort may be produced, which will completely escape 

 being rusted, though the crops in the neighbourhood, and in almost 

 every district in the kingdom, may sutfer from it in the same year J. 

 These circumstances tend to prove, that the rust does not depend 

 solely on atmospheric influence, otherwise it could not be prevented 

 by changes of seed, or by the crossing of different varieties. 



6. The advantages of treading light soils, have been already ex- 

 plained . It may be proper, however, to state the following facts, 



See Mr Purt's Letter, annexed to Mr Blaikie's, printed in the Farmer's 

 Journal, dated Holkham, Oct. 1 2. 1 820. 



j- That eminent farmer, Robert Barclay, Esq. of Ury, in Scotland, brought 

 his wheat seed from England every two years, and sowed only what was pro- 

 duced from English wheat the preceding year. 



| In Italy, they recommend thin sowing, alleging, that as the infection may 

 go from car to ear, it is less apt to spread, when the ears are not in contact. 

 But this seems to be erroneous doctrine. 



A farmer has gone so far as to assert, that if the land, be the soil what it 

 may, were trodden by a troop of horse, or a drove of cattle, after being sown 

 with wheat, there would be scarcely such a thing as the rust known. But it is 

 obvious, that treading in this way would do no good to clay land, but on the 



