PROCEEDIXGS OF TEE FARMERS' ClTJB. 463 



ammoina, but inasmuch as it is mingled with more than twice its 

 weight of i^owdered carbonate, the wliole, if mixed with fermenting 

 manures, would do mischief, and although this result, weight for 

 weight, would be less marked than if ordinary lime were used, the 

 experiment cannot be carried out without the loss of a portion of the 

 more valuable constituents of the manure. 



In conclusion the writer would express the opinion that all things 

 considered, gas lime, properly managed and applied, is equal in value 

 to common air slalced lime, with the additional advantage, whether 

 that amounts to more or less in practice, that it has a tendency to 

 repel insects. It is not likely that its use will ever become very 

 extended for the reason that the supply is limited, and by the intro- 

 duction of new methods of purifying gas wdli probably become less 

 instead of greater. The annual production in Xew York and 

 Brooklyn was estimated, by a dealer, at three quarters of a million 

 bushels, which is one-fourth less than it was a few years ago, one of 

 the large gas companies having recently adopted another process of 

 purification. 



Adjourned. 



September 7, 1869. 



Nathai? C. Ely, Esq., in the chair; the Secretary absent, being at the exhibition 

 of the Institute. 



Smxit m Wheat. 



Mr. P. J. Ilyde, Sudbury, Kutland county, Yermont.— A. S. Wit- 

 ter wants a sure method of preventing smut in wheat. Here is what 

 I do and never raise smut; soak my seed in brine twelve hours, have 

 brine enough to cover the wheat, drain off the brine and roll it in 

 strong slaked lime. 



Mr. J. W. Gregory. — That remedy was used with success fifty 

 years ago in England, except that human urine was used in place of 

 brine. 



An English gentleman. — In Cornwall the same preventive of smut 

 is now used with success. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman.— English chemists many years ago discovered 

 that the health and vigor of plants is promoted by soaking the seed 

 in a weak dilution of sulphuric acid. This is recommended as a sub- 

 stitute for the animal acid alluded to. Smut is a disease of wheat 

 that is not understood any more than consumption is in the human 



