NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



103 



.SMI r IN WHKaP. 



Much has been said and written on the subject of 

 imut in wlieat, and the (iiffeitnt diseases, in grain, 

 nrhich among farmers in ^ neral are known by that 

 aame. Disthictions are 'nude by scientific writers be- 

 tween smut and burnt ^aiu, which we shall not un- 

 dertake at present to point out, as both kinds of disor- 

 der are prevented or cured we believe by the same 

 treatment. 



The following riilis will be of use. They are taken 

 in substance from an Ks«ay published in the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural Repository, vol. v, p. 1J4. 



I. Wheat is not to be sown on ground which has 

 born smutty wheat in the year preceding. This would 

 be bad policy if smut were out of the question, as two 

 white crops should never succeed each other, which is 

 against the rules of I'olation in husbandry. 



^. Manure tainted v.ith smut should not be used for 

 wheat land, unless it is made into a compost, in whith 

 lirae is an ingrt;dient. 



3. When manure is used it shonld not be spread too 

 thickly, but as evenly as possible. 



4. Pure seed should not be left within the reach of 

 infectious materials. This caution extends not only to 

 avoiding the use of a threshing floor employed for 

 stnutty wheat ; but that of tainted sacks, casks, and 

 vessels for measuring wheat. 



5. Wheat shonld be sowed early that the crop may 

 ripen early, and it should not be kept back by feeding 

 in the spring. 



6. The seed should be of a good quality, not light, 

 unripe, mouldy^ bruised, or worm eaten. 



7. None but good land sliould be employed in rais- 

 ing wheat, and land which admits of early crops. 



8. ^Vheat should not be sown in very wet weather, 

 even when the soil is dry. 



9. A change of seed is recommended by writers on 

 this subject, and few who are wise will procure worse 

 seed to sow than that which they possess already. 



10. The purest portions of the plants in a crop should 

 be set apart for seed ; and when ripe, these plants 

 should be harvested by themselves, and the seed pre- 

 served apart in a safe place, l^his rule will conimonly 

 prove more important than the one jirecedin^j:. 



II. The thick sowing of wheat is improper, for the 

 double reason, that it produces feeble plants, and 

 dampness, both of which encourage smut. 



12. No favorable moment for sowing is to be lost. 

 nor is any unfavorable moment to lie adopted from a 

 supposed necessity of paying attention to the state o: 

 the moon. 



The following receipt for preparing seed wheat, sn 

 as to secure it against smut, so far as smut depends on 

 the seed, was published in France by ^i. Tillet more 

 than sixty years ago, and is recommended by Du 

 Hamel. 



If the seed be spoiled it should first be washed in sev- 

 eral clear waters, till the black spots disappear. It is 

 then to be steeped in the liquor immediately to be 

 mentioned. 



If the seed be not spotted, it is merely to be soaked 



in the following liquor : make some ley, by putting 



four pints of water to every pound of wood-ashes, ac- 



I cording to the quantity wanted. Jf to 100 pounds of 



I ashes, 400 pints (or 50 gallons) of*ater be added, tht 



I produce, when strained, will be .% gallons of ley ; to 



which must be added 15 pounds of quick lime. This 



; will prepare nearly 17 bushels of wheat for sowing. 



I This liquor when wanted for use must be made as 



1 hot as the naked hand can bear it, and placed in a 



large tub. The seed being put in baskets, must now 



be plunged into it. and stirred with a stick ; after 



ivhicb the liquor must be drained away. The seed 



must next be laid on a lioor, till dry enough to be sow- ' 

 ed. If stirred from time to time with a shovel, to pre-' 

 vent its heating, it may be kept without damage for a ' 

 month or even a year. 



Au English writer directs that " after the wheat is ! 

 taken out of the pickling tub and laid on the iloor, it 

 should be well dusted over, and mixed with quick or 

 caustic lime ; and if turned over with a shovel, or stip 

 red about with thi' teeth of a rake, it will dry faster 

 and be sooner ready for sowijig, and if ran through a 

 barley or oat riddle it will separate better as it is sown. 



Another mode of pickling is sometimes practised 

 with success, by immersing the wheat into or sjirink- 

 ling it over with stale chamber-ley, and afterwards 

 ducting it over with quicklime. But there is danger 

 of the wheat being injured by the strength of the 

 chamber-ley ; and the wheat pickled in this manner 

 must be sown immediately after it is dressed, let the 

 state of the weather be what it may ; for if kept out of 

 gro'iud for a time its vegetative powers would be de- 

 stroyed. 



A Vermont Farmer lias given us the following as his 

 mode of preparing seed wheat : — I take three quarts of 

 slacked lime,* to each bushel of wheat, put them into 

 a barrel, a layer of wheat and a layer of lime alter- 

 nately ; then pour in water till it is all covered. In 

 this situation let it stand from two to four days, as the 

 case may require, [probably aecording to the tempera- 

 ture of the weather] and the morning before sowing 

 the wheat tap the barrel and draw off the liquor. 



Sir John Sinclair advises that " when the seed wheat 

 is put into any liquid it should be run very ge7illy thro' 

 a liddle, when not only the smut balls, but the imper- 

 fect grains and tlie seeds of weeds will float and may 

 lie skimmed off at pleasure, which is not the case when 

 the seed is put hastily into the water. The same wa- 

 ter should never be used but once in washing wheat, 

 even when brine is employed, it is safest to have fresh 

 liquor for each parcel. Lime is not only of service to 

 d/y the seed, but by its caustic and anti-septic quali- 

 ties, it tends to destroy putridity, and animalculie of 

 every description." 



In Young's Annals, vol. x, p. 231, are given the fol- 

 lowing experiments : 



" December 7, 17C7. Sowed fourteen beds with the 

 same wheat seed, as black with the smut as ever I saw 

 any. 



1 . Sown dry, nothing done tc it, had 377 smutty ears. 



2. AA ashed well in clean water, had 325 do. 



3. Washed in lime water, had 43 do. 



4. "Washed in a lie of wood ashes, had 31 do. 



5. Washed in arsenic and salt mix- 



ture, had 20 do. 



6. Steeped in lime water four hours, 



had 12 do. 



7. Steeped in lye four hours, had 3 do. 



8. Steeped in arsenic four hours, had 1 do. 



9. Steeped in lime water 12 hours, 



had 6 do. 



10. Steeped in lie twelve hours, bad do. 



11. Steeped in arsenic 12 hours, had 4 do. 



12. .Steeped in lime water 24 hours, had do. 



13. Steeped in lie 24 hours, had do. 



14. Steeped in arsenic 24 hours, had 5 do. 



The Greeks riclomin. — translations from the Paris 

 Constitutionel of tin I2th September, pubjished in the 

 Philadelphia National Gazette, give accounts of great 

 victories gained by the Greeks over the Turks. The 

 latter were defeated with great slaughtc r at Tlurnio- 

 pylae, and at Trachis on the 20tli of July, and the Cth 

 and 7th of August. 



Premium Hals. — The fine Beaver Hals, for which 

 a premium of $20 was awarded to Gerry Fairbanks, 

 at the late Brighton Show, were manufactured by Mess. 

 Dikeman & Shepard of Northampton. 



Siceel Polnlors.— The New-Haven .'ournal states that 

 a number of sweet potatoes was raised in a gai'den in 

 that city the past season, among which was cne weigh- 

 ing 3 lb. 2 oz. 



Great ^ppU. — We have seen an Apple, which grew 

 on the farm of Mr. James Field, of Chester, weighing 

 22 1-2 ounces and measuring 14 1-2 inches in circum- 

 ference. Bellows Falls Intelligincer. 



American Mnnifaclures. — General M'Clure made a 

 bet of $50, that he would take wool on the fleece and 

 manufacture a suit of satinet cloth in ten hours. '1 lie 

 bet was decided last Saturday in his favour, having 

 completed the suit and put them on in eight hours and 

 45 minutes. The colour was a blue mixture ; the wool 

 was coloured in 35 minutes ; carded, spun and wove 

 in two hours and twenty-five minutes, fulled, knapped, 

 dried, sheared and dressed in one hour and 5B minutes ; 

 carried in four minutes, three-quarters of a mile to Mr. 

 Gilmore's tailor shop, who with the assistance of sev- 

 en hands completed the coat, jacket and overhalls, in 

 three hours and 49 minutes ; there was a half a yard 

 of the cloth left, being in the whole 8 and a half yards, 

 and of such quality as was estimated to be worth one 

 dollar per yard. The General oflers to double the bet 

 that he will make a better suit in less than tight hours 

 — and dares the advocates of John Bull's manufactures 

 to take him tip. 



There was a great collection of people assembled on 

 the occasion ; Col. Barnard, with the officers commis- 

 sioned and non commissioned, of his regiment, a full 

 band of musick, and many citizens escorted the Gener- 

 al from the village to the factory, when after partaking 

 of this worthy citizen's usual liberality, the procession 

 returned to tlie village, the air resounding with many 

 hearty cheers. — Steuben and Allegany Patriot. 



The fall meeting of the Susquehanna Agricultural 

 Society was held on the 9th inst. The premium for 

 the greatest quantity of domestic manufactures produc- 

 ed in one family, was awarded to W. C. Turrell. His 

 household have made upwards of sixteen hundred yards 

 of different kinds of cloth, besides stockings and yarn 

 sold. Sophia H ice received the premium lor the best 

 American Leghorn Grass Bonnet. — Phil. Union. 



* Probably by ^' slacked //mf" i.? vol meant thai vhich 

 lias beco7ne in any degree mild or effele^ but lime n-hich 

 is taken from the kiln and brought by the application of 

 irater to a pou-dered state., and xchat is called by cliemisls 

 Hydrate of Lime. 



Prodigious Pear. — A pear grew this season in the 

 garden of Jonathan Edmunds, in Framingham, which 



BROWN'S PATENT VERTICAL FAMILY 

 SPLNNER. 



FOP>^ SALE, at the Agricultural Warehouse, in 

 Chambers No. 20, Merchant's Row, (opposite 

 the East end of the Old Market) — a number of 



Broicn's Patent Family Wool Spinners, 

 which are found on trial to be one of the most useful 

 domestic implements that have ever been invented for 

 that purpose, being of so simple and easy construction 

 that a girl of the age of 15 can well do the work of six 

 pirsons in spinning, and so compact in its form as not 

 to require so much space as a common family spinning 

 wheel. The advantage of this machine over and above 

 the common mode of family sjiinning, is at once tested 

 in a few minutes operation with the machine ; it at 

 once discovers its immense saving of labor, its accuracy 

 in spinning a good thread, and thf quantity it will 

 spin. It requires no further examination to judge of 

 its utility than to see it operate. It is afforded at so 

 low a price as to bring it in common use to every prac- 

 tical farmer, and is well calculated for the employment 

 of the inmates of our common town's hoor houses. — 

 Any number of Machines can be furnished at the short-- 

 est notice, and warranted. Cct. 26, 



