PREFACE. 



Having, during a long residence in one of the 

 principal agricultural districts of Norfolk, been 

 in the habit of examining in my walks the 

 various blights of the corn plants in all their 

 stages, I have been often requested to make 

 known my observations in a popular form. In 

 arriving at conclusions on these subjects, and 

 in bringing them on certain occasions before 

 assemblages of scientific men, I have been 

 most materially assisted by professor Henslow, 

 and the Rev. I. M. Berkeley, to whom I desire 

 to acknowledge my obligations. Nor are there 

 two higher authorities to be found. In com- 

 plying with the request that I would publish a 

 plain treatise on these curious subjects, it gives 

 me real satisfaction that it should come out 

 through the medium of the Religious Tract 

 Society, which has so admirably continued 



