126 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



with a light harrow drawn by one yoke of oxen ; and three 

 weeks after was subjected to the same process, according to 

 the method practised in France, as mentioned by the late 

 president of the New York Agricultural society, in his re- 

 cent communication to that body. The eflect of this was to 

 destroy very few of the plants, and to render the growth of 

 what remained much more luxuriant, producing such an in- 

 crease of the stem and such an extension of the heads, as to 

 attract the notice of the most casual observer, and to induce 

 several persons, who were ignorant of the process to which it 

 had been subjected, to inquire for the cause of the difference 

 in the two parts of the field, and to ask if a different kind of 

 seed had been used. 



' After all, however, to my extreme disappointment, the 

 whole field has been blasted, and I shall hardly get back the 

 amount of the seed sown, and that in a small shrivelled grain. 

 The crop is housed, but will scarcely repay the expense of 

 threshing. 



' Now that this result was not owdng to the use of stable 

 dung is obvious, because none was used ; and in that part 

 of the field where the blight appeared to commence, and to 

 make most rapid progress, no manure whatever was used. 



' It was not owing to the want of the specific property in 

 the soil, as far as that is to be found in lime and slaughter- 

 house manure, for both of th'^se were employed; the seed 

 was limed, and the above manure copiously applied. 



'It is not to b2 attributed to the luxuriance of the crop, 

 for several pieces, as I learn in my neighborhood, have suf- 

 fered equally and from the same cause, when the cultivation 

 was by no means so high. 



' It is not a time of universal failure, for a good deal in 

 this vicinity is perfectly healthy and sound, and I have al- 

 ready reaped on the same farm a small piece of wheat, say 

 half an acre, on higher land, which was healthy and fair, 

 though from the condition of the land it gave but a small 

 product. This, however, though sowed at the same time, 

 was ready for the sickle more than a week sooner than the 

 other, from the drier and poorer quality of the soil. 



' What then was the cause of the blast ? I will not as- 

 sume to decide this question, but as far as appears, it was 

 atmospheric, occurring at a particular state of the plant, 

 which rendered it peculiarly liable to blight. As the wheat 

 was filling fast, we had frequent showers, and much of what 

 we Yankees call muggy weather ; one day in particular the 



