1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 61 



by it ; but the seed is covered with this black and offensive 

 powder, and produces an impure, discolored and unhealthy 

 flour. It can be to a degree removed from the grain by wash- 

 ing it after it is threshed ; but this is an inconvenient and trou- 

 blesome process, and not altogether effectual. This disease, as 

 well as smut and mildew, has been attributed to the attacks of 

 insects or animalcules ; but late discoveries strongly lead to the 

 belief that it is a species of fungus, the seeds of which become 

 attached to the seeds of wheat, and are carried by some un- 

 known process into the heads of the wheat, where they perfect 

 themselves. 



Against this accident or disease, there is a preventive which 

 may almost be pronounced certain. The seed is to be soaked 

 in strong brine, or in stale urine, and, while wet, sprinkled with 

 finely slacked lime, and left in this state twenty-four hours 

 before sowing. It is stated that its germinating power will be 

 injured if it lays too long in urine ; but this is not the case 

 with brine, unless the temperature of the weather is very warm. 

 Others recommend a solution of copperas or arsenic ; but salt 

 brine being a more simple preparation, and easily accessible to 

 every farmer, is to be preferred. This application seldom fails 

 to be an effectual preventive of smut. There are indeed, as 

 will be seen, some few cases of smut stated in the reports in 

 which the wheat is represented as having been brined and 

 limed ; but more exact statements are Avanted, before we dis- 

 trust the efficacy of this preventive, which has been established 

 by rmmerous experiments of the most decisive character. Per- 

 sons often question the rule, when the experiments, which they 

 make, are too imperfect to test it. For example, they will 

 brine the seed without liming it ; or they will merely wet the 

 seed in pure water and apply lime to it ; or they will soak it 

 in brine and apply ashes or gypsum to it. None of these modes 

 are a security against smut. But where the seed is thoroughly 

 steeped in strong brine, sprinkled with caustic or quick lime, 

 and allowed to remain some hours after being thus dressed, and 

 not suffered to become dry before it is sowed, the preventive, 



