ON THE BLIGHT IN CORN. 2,29 



gentle breeze, accompanied with humidity, (hall give the fignal 

 to intrude itfelf into the pores of thousands of acres of corn. 

 Providence, however, careful of the creatures it has created, If there tfere n» 

 has benevolently provided againfl the too ex ten five multiple ^'^"hec'k * 

 cation of any fpecies of being ; was it otherwife, the minute the increafeof 

 plants and animals, enemies againft which man has the feweft fma " P lan " and 



c i r i i • r • , • animals > the 



means ot defence, would increale to an inordinate extent; this ] ar g er wou ]d 

 however, can in no cafe happen, unlefs many predifpofin? Speedily bede- 



C rr 1 -1 • 1- i rrr> x, r . r , Proved by tl^enj.. 



caules afford their combined aflmance. But tor this wile and 

 beneficent provision, the plague of flugs, the plague of mice, 

 the plagues of grubs, wire-worms, chafers, and many other 

 creatures whofe power of multiplying is countlefs as the fands 

 of the fea, would, long before this time, have driven mankind, 

 and all the larger animals, from the face of the earih. 



Though all old perfons who have concerned themfelves in The blight does 

 agriculture remember the blight in corn many years, yet fome " ot a PP eart0 



° ° j j ' j have increafed of 



have fuppofed that of late years it has materially increafed ; late years, 

 this however does not feem to be the cafe. Tull, in his Horfe- 

 hoeing Hufbandry, p. 74, tells us, that the year 1725 " was^ 

 *' year of blight the like of which was never before heard of, and 

 " which he hopes may never happen again;" yei the average 

 price of wheat in the year 1726, when the harveft of 1725 was 

 at market, was only 36s. \d. and the average of the five years 

 oi which it makes the rirfl, 37s. Id. — 1797 was alfo a year of 

 great blight; the price of wheat in 1798 was 49*. Id. and the 

 average of the five years, from 1795 to 1799, 63s. 5d* 



The climate of the Britith Ifles is not the only one that is The blight In 

 liable to the blight in corn ; it happens occasionally in every part * orn pr° bab 'y 

 of Europe, and probably in all countries where corn is grown, countries. 



* The fcarcity of the year 1801 was in part oecafioned by a mil- 

 dew which, in many places, attacked the plants of wheat on the 

 S.E. fide only : but it was principally owing to the very wet harveft 

 of 1800. The deficiency of wheat, at that harveft, wasfound, on 

 a very accurate calculation, fomewhat to exceed one fourth. But 

 wheat was not the only grain that failed : all others, and potatoes 

 alfb were materially deficient. This year the wheat is probably 

 fomewhat more damaged than it was in 1800, and barley fomewhat 

 lefs than an average crop. Every other article of agricultural food 

 is abundant, and potatoes one of the largeft crops that has been 

 known. But for thefe bleilings on the labour of man, wheat mu$ 

 before this time have reached an exorbitant price.— Sir J. B. 



2 Italy 



