22 OUR FARM CROPS. 



been enabled to throw up a stout and sturdy stem, and to 

 send down strong and vigorous rootlets, it passes through 

 this trying period this weaning time without suffering 

 any check to its growth, and speedily shows its healthy 

 condition by the deepened colour of its flag-leaf, and by 

 its general more erect habit. If, however, the parent seed 

 was but imperfectly developed in itself if it had not been 

 perfectly matured or if it had received any injury, such 

 as too frequently occurs in the operations of the barn 

 where the antiquated flail and faulty machinery are used, 

 then the store of food provided for the young plant would 

 necessarily be deficient, its organs would probably be im- 

 perfectly developed and weak, and it would be cast upon 

 its own resources, a weak and sickly plant, to struggle 

 against all the vicissitudes of its new existence, in the 

 shape of weather and the numerous ills and enemies to 

 which the wheat plant, during the whole period, ay, every 

 stage, of its life is subject. 



So many enemies, indeed, has the wheat plant to en- 

 counter during the successive stages of its growth, and 

 such injuries does it receive from them at times, that, 

 although but little attention comparatively is given to the 

 securing a well-grown healthy seed, still the advantage 

 of some treatment of the seed previous to sowing, for the 

 purpose of securing it against some of these attacks, is 

 very generally acknowledged and followed throughout 

 the country. This process is called " pickling" or "steep- 

 ing," and consists in immersing the seed wheat for a 

 given time in a solution prepared for the purpose, which 

 neutralizes, more or less perfectly according to its com- 

 position, the chance of injury from certain parasitic 

 fungoid plants, known by the ordinary name of "smut, ;> 

 "bunt," &c., which are extremely detrimental to the growth 

 and yield of the plant. 



The composition of these "steeps" varies in different- 



