On Smut in Wheat. 73 



Prime seed thus selected, need not ever to be changed, 

 nor will it degenerate under proper culture, notwith- 

 standing what some writers have asserted to the contra- 

 ry. This curious fact has been confirmed by more than 

 thirty years practice, by Mr. Joseph Cooper, an eminent 

 farmer in New Jersey. As the most perfect seeds of 

 vegetables sink in water — this may be a criterion of 

 good wheat, proper to be selected for seed, and such 

 grains as float on the surface should be rejected. Ne- 

 vertheless some eminent authors allege from experi- 

 ments, that the small shrivelled grain, or refuse of fine 

 wheat after winnowing, if not deprived of the power of 

 vegetation, yields an equal, or even superior produce at 

 the harvest, because a bushel of the shrivelled seed con- 

 tains 3 grains to 2 of the plump grain. Hence by using 

 an inferior sort for seed, and converting the best kind 

 of wheat into flour, a great annual saving may be made.^" 

 But this is a species of oeconomy so directly contrary 

 to the practice of Mr. Cooper, and other eminent far- 

 mers, who improve their grain by a careful selection 

 of choice seed, that a contrary method, it is presum- 

 ed, will not be readily adopted, unless in a season of 

 extreme scarcity. 



The immersion of seed wheat in water, and then 

 gently drying it just before sowing, will accelerate ger- 

 mination, in a more kindly and natural way, than the ar- 

 tificial stimulating steeps commonly employed. 



2. Where wheat cannot be readily had, without a mix- 

 of shrivelled or imperfect seeds, the above method will 



* Communications to the Board of Agriculture. London, 

 Vol. 2. p. 630. 



X 



