110 HARVESTING. 



serve the straw and the grain, if any -has been formed, 

 from being entirely lost, is to cut it down immediately, 

 even though the crop should be far from ripe. The 

 straw is thus preserved either for food or litter ; and it 

 is maintained that any nourishment in the straw, will 

 pass into and feed the grain, and make a greater return 

 than could well be expected. 



SMUT 



Is a distemper in grain, which dissolves the substance 

 of the kernel, turns it to a black dust, and bursts the 

 coat ot the kernel. The real cause of smut has escaped 

 the researches of many philosophers. The methods of 

 preventing it, recommended by different writers, are va- 

 rious. 



It is said in the Pennsylvania Farmer^ that smut in 

 wheat may be removed by sinking a vessel that contains 

 the seed beneath a running stream, or under a pump ; 

 stirring it briskly with a broom, whereby the balls, if 

 any, of this pernicious substance, will lioat away or may 

 be skimmed off, and if there be not any of them, butsome 

 of the powder adhereing to the seed-wheat, this active 

 stirring and brushing will cleanse it. 



From various experiments it has been found that steep- 

 ing grain 24 hours in lye will prevent smut. Let the lye 

 be made pretty strong, and if the wheat be steeped lon- 

 ger than this length of time it will not injure it, unless it 

 be kept too warm. Lime water, and brine, applied in 

 the same manner, will no doubt answer the same purpose. 

 — (See the article wheat.) 



Seed-wheat which has been well ripened before har- 

 vesting, is much less liable to smut than that which has 

 been cut early. Wheat that is very smutty, should not 

 be harvested, until fully ripe. Great care must be ta- 

 ken, not to thresh wheat on a floor where smutty grain 

 has been threshed, to convey it in the same bags, or to 

 mingle it with other wheat in the same mow; because 

 smut is believed to be somewhat infectious. It is rec- 

 ommended therefore, that smutty wheat should be thresh- 

 ed in the field. 



POTATOES. 



The potatoe, the prince of roots, being of easy culti- 

 vation, generally abundant in its produce, and of quick 



