48 On Smut in Wheat. 



the smut, which burst from the balls, during the act of 

 thrashing, and lodged in the small beard on the plume 

 end of the grain, preventing or impeding the process of 

 vegetation in the plant, in its embryo state, withholding 

 the power required to mature the grain, at a certain pe- 

 riod. It becomes a matter of no small import to inves- 

 tisrate the causes of this disease, for althous:h smut has 

 not prevailed, in the States Pennsylvania, Delaw^are, and 

 Maryland, it has been highly injurious in the remote 

 counties of the State of New York, and in the valley 

 of Shenandoah : and it some years ago made its ap- 

 pearance in a field of v/heat in this neighbourhood, the 

 seed of which was brought from New York. 



If any favourite species of w^heat shall be introduced 

 amongst us infected with smut, the disease might have 

 a rapid increase. When perhaps the evil might be as- 

 cribed to that sort of Avheat, or an unfavourable state of 

 the atmosphere, rather than to a disease inherent or at- 

 tached to the seed. 



The foregoing facts inform us, that smut is sometimes 

 produced from seed, which had no mixture of it, 

 as in the harvest of 1805. At other times it is the na- 

 tive offspring of the purest grain, infected with, or hav- 

 ing smut thereon, as in the harvest of 1806. The first 

 may arise from an unfavourable state of the atmosphere 

 or more frequently, from some radical defect in the seed 

 so-wn. When the early advances of the plants are vi- 

 gorous and the infection of all sorts of wheat, at an af- 

 ter period, general, there is reason to presume, that the 

 disease arises from some external circumstance, such 

 as a hot sun, after heavy rains, continued moisture to 

 excess in the Gitmospliere, while at an high temperature 



