SMUT. 



fmutty long before they ceafed to be covered with the 

 blades, which continue green till the diftemper has made 

 great progrefs : — that the fame obfervations refute abfo- 

 lutely the opinion of thofe who fuppofe the caufe of the 

 fmut to be in the grains after they are fcrmed, and before 

 they are pall their milky Hate : — that the fmut of corn has 

 been alfo afcribed to the moirture of the earth ; but we do 

 not fee more fmutty plants in the lowelt, and confequently 

 wetted parts of a field, than in the highelt and moll dry. 

 Beiidcs, why (hould there be a fingle fmutty plant in the 

 midft of numbers of found ones ? However, as it appears 

 that corn is more frequently attacked with this diftemper in 

 wet years than when the feafons are dry, too much moifture 

 may perhaps, without being the immediate caufe of the fmut, 

 favour its progrefs more than drought would do. 



Some naturalilts have afcribed this diftemper to infefts. 

 Our author, if he is not authorifed abfolutely to deny this, 

 can at leaft affert, that, after having been of this opinion 

 for fome time, all his endeavours to eftablifh it by fafts have 

 proved ineffedlual. Some obfervers have indeed ftiewn him 

 different infefts in fmutty grains ; but as he found the very 

 fame kinds likewife in found ears, he believes, with Mr. 

 Tilltt, that they are not in any manner the caufe of this 

 diftemper. We know that the corn-caterpillar devours the 

 mealy fubftance of the grain : but it does not occafion fmut. 

 Numbers of flies lay their eggs upon thefe feeds, and the 

 worms and maggots which proceed from them eat the 

 feeds ; but this does not occafion any thing like fmut. The 

 Rev. Dr. Hales, to fatisfy himfelf whether the fmut of corn 

 might not proceed from the feeds being bruiied by the flail, 

 took a number of grains, of different fizes, and bruifed them 

 with a hammer. Thus his own experience convinced him 

 that he had conceived a wrong idea of the caufe of this 

 diftemper. 



Several cultivators have thought that pigeons' dung 

 and that of ftieep render corn fmutty : but this is a ground- 

 lefs notion. We have large pigeon-houfes, the dung of 

 which is ftrewed upon our wheat-lands ; yet we do not 

 find that thefe fields are more affefted with fmut than others. 

 This allegation is, therefore, abfolutely deftitute of proof. 

 It is added, that Wolfius was of opinion that the fmut of 

 corn proceeded from a monftrofity of the embryo ; but 

 M. Almen has refuted that fuppofition, by (hewing, that 

 the male flowers of certain kinds of plants are attacked with 

 this diftemper : now the flowers have not any embryo. 



And this laft philofopher has judicioufly obferved, that 

 the fmut of corn cannot derive its origin from a defeCl 

 in the fap ; as all the parts of the plant, except the ear, 

 look healthy, and there are plants whofe roots are perennial, 

 which appear vigorous, though their feeds are fmutty every 

 year. He is of opinion, that whatever weakens tlie plant 

 is apt to bring on the fmut, and inftancss as a proof of this, 

 that it is a frequent cuftom in his country, to cut rye as 

 foon as it fpindles, for food for their cattle ; and that this 

 rye generally produces other ears, which feldom contain 

 any but diftempered grain : to which he adds, tliat feed- 

 corn which had been pricked or run through with a needle, 

 or which is not thoroughly ripe, and that which produces 

 lateral or fecond ears, is fubjeft to the fmut. And he 

 afterwards, from other trials, feems difpofed to afcribe this 

 difeafe to mouldinefs. 



But in the " Memoirs of the Bath Agricultural Society," 

 it is faid to be a difeafe that only occurs when the weather 

 is wet, during the period of the flowering of the plants, in 

 which the anthers may burit and the farina be waihed way. 

 It is fuppofed not to be produced by any infcftious mate- 

 rial, or the ova of infedls that may adhere to the grain, as 



fmutty ears and found ones are found proceeding from the 

 fame root ; and, in fome inftances, both fmutty and found 

 grains to be contained in the fame ear ; fome of the corns 

 having even one end fmutty and the other found, confe- 

 qucntly to arife from the want of due impregnation, from 

 the farina fecundans being faulty or imperfeft, and that 

 putrefaftion takes place on the death of the corn. And 

 this fuppofition is fupported by the experiments of the 

 Italian philofopher Spallanzani, who found that the feed is 

 produced in the plants long anterior to impregnation, 

 which cannot be performed until the flower is open, and 

 the duft of the anther fully in a ftate of maturity. And 

 Dr. Darwin, on thefe principles, conceives, that for want 

 of impregnation, or the vivifying principle, the wheat-corn 

 may putrefy, as is the cafe with addle eggs of oviparous 

 animals. However, the inquiries of other writers feem to 

 lead to the opinion that the affeftion is produced by the 

 attacks of an infeft, and that, though certainlv infeclious, 

 it may be prevented or cured by the ufe of different kinds 

 of pickles. 



Further, a variety of fails and refleftions have been 

 offered on this fubjeft by Mr. R. Somerville, in the fecond 

 volume of " Communications to the Board of Agriculture;" 

 who begins by remarking, that fome years ago, he col- 

 ledfed a quantity of fmutted ears from one field of wheat, 

 in which they were very numerous, and a number of healthy 

 well-filled ears from another field, in which there was no 

 fmut. The grains were rubbed out of both, intimately 

 mixed, and kept in a box for two months, at the end of 

 which time they were rubbed between the hands in fuch a 

 manner as to break the whole of the fmut-ball. The par- 

 cel was then divided into two equal parts, one of which 

 was three or four times wafhed with pure water, and well 

 rubbed between the hands at each wafhing, and afterwards 

 fown in a drill in his garden ; the other half was fown in 

 another drill without any wafhing or preparation whatever, 

 the foil and every other circumftance being equal. Both 

 parcels vegetated at the fame time, and for about two 

 months thereafter there was no vifible difference in their 

 appearance ; about that period, he however obferved, that 

 many of the plants in the drill that had been fown without 

 being wafhed, were of a darker colour than the others ; 

 thefe, when narrowly examined, were of a dirty-green. 

 The plants in the drill that had been wafhed were all of 

 one colour, and feemingly healthy ; as the feafon advanced, 

 the difference in colour became more itriking, and con- 

 tinued to increafe till the grain was fairly out of the blade : 

 about this time many of the dirty- green ears beiran to 

 exhibit fymptoms of decay. As foon as the ear was fairly 

 fhot out, the whole of thofe in the unwafhed drill, that had 

 the dirty-green appearance above defcribed, were found to 

 contain nothing but fmut ; and thefe fmutted ears were in 

 the proportion of more than fix to one of the healthy ones ; 

 while, on the contrary, the drill in which tlie wafhed grains 

 had been fown, and which confuted of feveral hundred 

 grains, had hardly a fmutted or unhealthy ear in it. The 

 fame experiment was repeated the following feafon, and 

 with nearly the fame refult. Satisfied with knowing that 

 complete wafhing would be found a remedy for the difeafe, 

 he made no farther inquiry upon the fubjedl till laft autumn, 

 when he was employed in making obfervations upon the 

 blight, in the courfe of which he met with a good deal of 

 fmut in many fields ; and being at the time poffeiTed of 

 fome excellent glaffes, he carefully examined fome of the 

 fmutted plants. This at firft was done more as a matter 

 of amufement, than from any expeftation of difcovering 

 any thing that might contribute to throw light upon the 



fubjeft. 



