On Smut in Wheat, 61 



year, when it was ready for the sickle, and found, that 

 w^here hot hme had been used, no smut prevailed^ but 

 that the crop was much hurt where cold lime had been 

 substituted. 



" Some caution is certainly necessary with regard to 

 lime ; for should it be used when not properly slacked, 

 the great degree of heat thereby occasioned, would de- 

 stroy the vegetative principle of the seed ; but if appli- 

 ed with the precautions recommended, I am persuaded 

 that the liming and pickling may, in some slight degree 

 act as a manure. I have practised the method of pickling 

 now described, for more than twenty years, and never 

 suffered injury from smut. Once, and once only in that 

 time, during my absence from home, and when my re- 

 gular seedsman w^as indisposed, the process was left to 

 an inexperienced hand, and I was a material sufferer, by 

 his applying the lime without slacking it sufficiently." 



The authority upon which the above observations 

 and facts are given, is certainly lessened from the cir- 

 cumstance of its being anonymous ; and yet they are 

 in part corroborated by so many living persons, that we 

 suffer no risque in admitting them in favour of the prac- 

 tice under consideration. It must however be remark- 

 ed, that the opinion entertained respecting the lime 

 being the chief agent in the prevention of the disease, 

 is certainly not supported by as many, as that which 

 attributes an equal share to the salt water.* I myself was 



* Mr. Somerville, as we have seen before, thinks that the 

 lime is useful only to dry up the superfluous moisture and 

 make the grains separate and sow more readilv ; chalk or 



