242 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



It seems from the above, that the injury sustained 

 is proportioned to the length of time the grain has 

 been steeped, and that when it has been in the brine 

 18, or even 12 hours, almost one half loses its vege- 

 tative power. 



1 ;un fully satisfied that pickling and liming the 

 seed is an infallible preventive of smut in the wheat 

 crop ; but I do not think that steeping for 10, 12, or 

 18 hours is necessary. This opinion is founded on 

 my own experience and 'observation, as well as the 

 long practice and experience of others. My method 

 has been to make the brine as strong as I could, 

 permitting the wheat to be no longer in it than is 

 necessary for washing it, and skimming off what- 

 ever floats on the surface ; when taken out it is 

 mixed with fresh slaked lime, and sown soon after. 

 With this preparation, even when the seed is im- 

 pregnated with smut (as was the case last year with 

 part of the Italian wheat that I obtained), the crop 

 has been perfectly clean. Liquoring, as it is called, 

 has been practised in the wheat-growing districts of 

 Scotland for these forty years past, and how much 

 longer I do not know : but as long ago as at that 

 period, good farmers would almost as soon have 

 thought of throwing their seed into the sea as of 

 sowing it without that preparation. Brine made 

 from salt or seawater, or otherwise, and stale cham- 

 ber-ley, were used, the latter most generally. When 

 chamber-ley was applied, the usual method was to 

 sprinkle it on the heap of grain until it was well 

 wetted, adding fresh slaked lime, and sowing im- 

 modiately. In the application of brine, some steep- 

 ed the seed for a longer or shorter time, and others 

 sprinkled it. Without liquoring, in nine cases out 

 of ten, the crop was smutty ; with it, never. I will 

 conclude with a quotation corroborative of what I 

 have just stated. " There is some danger from the 

 first ; for if the seed steeped in urine is not immedi- 

 ately sown, it will infallibly lose its vegetative pow- 



