118 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



of existence. The first preparation therefore should be to 

 screen, winnow, and riddle the grain till perfectly freed from 

 these and other improper ingredients. When this is tho- 

 roughly accomplished, washing and steeping, for the pur- 

 pose of preventing smut, should meet attention. The first 

 step in the processes to be instituted against smut, as recom- 

 mended by Sir John Sinclair, is ' to run the grain very gently 

 through a riddle, when not only the smut balls, but the im- 

 perfect grains, and the seeds of weeds, will float, and may be 

 skimmed off at pleasure.' The same author enumerates as 

 modes by which smut maybe prevented, 1. The use of pure 

 cold water and lime. 2. Boiling water and lime. 3. Water 

 impregnated with salt. 4. Urine pickle. 5. Lye of wood 

 ashes. 6. A solution of arsenic. 7. A solution of blue 

 vitriol. It seems that almost any acrid, corrosive, or poison- 

 ous application will secure a clean crop, if properly used for 

 that purpose. 



Mr. Arthur Young sowed fourteen beds with the same 

 wheat seed, which was black with smut. The first bed was 

 sown with this wheat without washing, and had three hun- 

 dred and seventy-seven smutty kernels. A bed sowed with 

 seed washed in clean water produced three hundred and 

 twenty -five smutty kernels ; Avashed in lime water, forty- 

 three do. ; washed in lye of wood ashes, thirty-one do. ; 

 washed in arsenic and salt mixture, twenty-eight do. ; steeped 

 in lime water four hours, two do. ; steeped in lye four hours, 

 three do. ; steeped in arsenic four hours, one do. Again, 

 that which was steeped in lye, as before mentioned, twelve 

 hours, had none ; and that which was steeped in the same 

 kind of lye twenty-four hours had none; that also which 

 was steeped twenty-four hours in lime water had none ; that 

 steeped in arsenic twenty-four hours had five. 



A correspondent of the New England Farmer,^ (who is, 

 we believe, a practical and scientific agriculturist, and whose 

 statements are worthy of implicit confidence,) Avith the sig- 

 nature Berkshire^ in giving directions for preparing seed 

 wheat, observes : ' The only successful course is to prepare 

 the seed about ten days before sowing-time. This is done 

 by selecting clean and plump seed, passing it through water 

 in a tub, about half a bushel at a time, and washing it and 

 skimming off the matter that floats ; then empty it into a 

 basket to drain, then lay it on a clean floor and rake in two 



* See New England Farmer, vol. i. p. 275. 



