POISONS USED FOR STEEPING WHEAT. 25 



each kind of dressing will be found to answer the pur- 

 pose." 



11. Arsenic and other poisonous substances are also used 

 for steeping wheat, and are more or less effectual. Of late 

 a considerable discussion has taken place with reference to 

 the dangerous effects of these poisonous steeps for wheat ; 

 the two following paragraphs comprehend nearly all that 

 can be said on both sides. The first is from the pen of 

 Mr. Hewitt Davis, a well-known agricultural authority, 

 second from a correspondent of the Agricultural Journal. 

 " The use of poisoned seed-wheat," says Mr. Davis, " is so 

 general, and is attended with so much danger to human 

 life, and is so destructive of game, that I trust I may be 

 permitted to question the supposed advantages that give 

 rise to it. My own practice as a farmer for many years 

 was to use copperas, arsenic, and other mineral poisons in 

 preparing my wheat for seed, as a means of preventing 

 smut, burnt ears, and other diseases from the growth of 

 parasites on the corn, coming under the name of { uredo.' 

 I was told that these powerful mineral poisons destroyed 

 the sporidia of disease without injuring the sound seed. 

 But seeing the sad consequences in the game-field and 

 rookeries, and one year losing nearly all my young turkeys 

 from their getting into a field newly sown with wheat, I 

 was led to ask how it was possible that seed corn could be 

 benefited, and the seed of parasites be destroyed by the use 

 of poisons shown by the growth of the corn to be so in- 

 nocuous to vegetable life ; and I came to the conclusion that 

 the benefit from dressing of seed corn was due to the cleans- 

 ing that it got in the process, and not to any effect of the 

 poison upon the seed ; and for many years afterwards my 

 practice was to well wash the seed corn in sufficient water 

 to cover it, and allow all the lighter grains and seeds, &c., 

 to float, and be skimmed off. In this way a complete 

 separation of the sound grains from the diseased and noxi- 

 ous matter that often accompany it takes place ; for the 

 former all sink, while the latter float, and are easily separ- 

 ated by well stirring and skimming. From this practice I 



