CAUSES OF BUST IN WHEAT. 177 



authority on farming has stated, that, as the result of a very 

 wide and varied research into the books published many 

 years ago on farming, he believes that, with the addition of 

 a few, comparatively few, paragraphs or pages, the whole 

 might be published now as trustworthy guides to modern 

 practice. Of course the same remark does not apply to 

 the theory or science of agriculture; and although some 

 may even object to the statement above made that it applies 

 so closely to the practice, still there can be no doubt that, 

 embalmed in the pages of old works, lies many a pregnant 

 truth, many a suggestive fact or hint ; and of the truth of 

 this we ourselves have had some experience. In view of 

 this it has appeared to us that we may serve some indi- 

 rectly suggestive, if not directly practical, purpose, by giv- 

 ing here an extract from a work published many years 

 ago, upon the causes of rust in wheat, as supplementary to 

 what we have said about it in the body of the work, (see 

 par. 8, p. 100). 



On the subject of rust in wheat and its causes, the fol- 

 lowing by Mr. Hayward in his " Science of Agriculture," 

 written may years ago, will be useful : " I shall take 

 leave," says the writer, " to state that the observation and 

 experience of many years have convinced me, that the 

 opinions of the great reformer of the medical profession, 

 Mr. Abernethy that the most afflicting diseases to which 

 the human species are subjected, are generated in the 

 stomach, and consequently are to be remedied by the sto- 

 mach are perfectly just and well founded; and I am 

 also convinced, that most of the diseases of animals and of 

 plants may be accounted for and remedied on the same 

 principles. From what has been said, it is clear that ve- 

 getables cannot 'be supported without a due supply of food ; 

 and that with those, as with animals, the quality and 

 quantity of food must possess an equal influence. 



" Every man is aware that the quality of the food he 

 consumes is equally as determined in its eifects as the 

 quantity ; and such, no doubt, is the case with plants, as 

 1' "i fore observed. When an animal is constrained to live 



