THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



333 



been held by intelligent farmers, and writers, are 

 the following: 



Smut is infectious by contagion. The smut dust 

 being sprinkled upon grains of wheat, of a crop 

 before entirely free from smut, will communicate the 

 disease, and cause good and clean seed, so contami- 

 nated, to produce a smutted crop. Of course, when 

 but a few smutted heads first appear on a farm 

 previously exempt, the bursting of the smut-balls, 

 and their defiling the otherwise good seed, will in- 

 duce the disease to increase from year to year, un- 

 less clean seed be procured from abroad, or the 

 foul seed be purified. The smut dust may be 

 washed off, or its vitality destroyed, by various pro- 

 cesses of washing, steeping or sprinkling. Among 

 the salts most approved and recommended, for these 

 purposes, are common salt, (muriate of soda,) Glau- 

 ber's salt, (sulphate of soda,) and bluestone, (sul- 

 phate of copper.) The most common steep has 

 been a saturated solution of common salt, (or brine,) 

 and for many years it has been repeated in nume- 

 rous publications, and rarely contradicted, that 

 steeping wheat in this solution was a safe and ef- 

 fectual remedy. 



The other opinions are generally correct. But 

 steeping in brine, I maintain, is, without exception, 

 injurious to the germination of the seed. Yet many 

 have advised this steeping for as long as 24 hours; 

 and many have so practised, and did not know the 

 damage, for w r ant of proper observation and com- 

 parison. The editor of the American Farmer for 

 this month, (September, 1854,) repeats the recom- 

 mendation of washing seed wheat in saturated 

 brine, as part of the process to prevent smut. He 

 further adds: "Besides, the soaking will tend to 

 facilitate the earlier vegetation of the seed." This 

 supposed benefit, and also the safety of brining 

 seed wheat, will be contradicted by some of the 

 observations to be stated below. 



In 1836, 1 ascertained, by large practice and loss, 

 that the steeping of wheat 12 hours was injurious, 

 and (by experiment) still more so for 18 and 22 

 hours, which was still within the maximum of time 

 recommended in books, or at least deemed safe. 

 My then observations on that head were published 

 in the Farmers' Register, (Vol. III., p. 692,) but 

 they have not served to guard others against still 

 greater and more recent losses. This year, Mr. 

 William H. Harrison, of Amelia, who had brined 

 his seed wheat, estimated his loss of crop thereby 

 incurred at not less than 1000 bushels. This, and 

 reports of other like losses, have induced me to 

 offer here an abstract of the observations formerly 

 published, and also some later experiments and 

 facts on different branches of this general subject. 



42. About 23 or 24 years ago, I first observed 

 heads of smutted wheat sprinkled throughout my 

 crop. The seed (part of that crop) for the next 

 autumn's sowing, was washed first in fresh water 

 and then steeped in saturated brine. The time of 

 remaining in brine was not noted, and is not now 

 remembered. But, then, supposing it altogether 

 safe, it is probable that the times varied according 

 to convenience. As no experiment or comparison 

 was made, no damage to the germination was ob- 

 served or suspected. The brined wheat was well 

 dusted with quicklime, as usual. For want of lime, 

 a few acres were sown with seed from the same 

 bulk of slightly infected wheat. The crop was 

 entirely clear of smut, (so far as observed,) and 

 equally clear both from the few bushels of seed 

 sown dry and unprepared, and that both brined 

 and limed for the great body of the crop. 

 II L 



43. In 1835, smut having again appeared in the 

 preceding crop, brining and liming was again re- 

 sorted to with confidence, and without any suspi- 

 cion of danger. I was further encouraged to steep 

 longer, by learning previously from Mr. A. B. 

 Spooner, near Petersburg, that he every year steeped 

 his seed 18 hours in saturated brine, and did not 

 fear extending the time to 24 hours. Mr. Spooner, 

 on a small and highly manured farm, made very 

 heavy crops of wheat. But probably he had not 

 observed closely enough to detect any injury to 

 germination ; and heavy seeding on rich land might 

 hide the actual loss of an eighth or more of the 

 seed sown. My seed for the first week's sowing 

 was steeped 18 hours. The wheat came up so thin, 

 that (together with the confirmation of the experi- 

 ments to follow) I was convinced of the danger 

 and injury to germination, and subsequently avoided 

 the hazard of long steeping. The result on the 

 next crop, as to smut, was not noted, and I do not 

 now remember it. But, as I did not lose any of 

 my previous confidence in the brining as a prevent- 

 ive, I presume it was then of satisfactory effect. 



44. Experiments. — The same seeding time, and 

 on September 30th, the day on which seeding was 

 begun, I took a handful of the seed wheat, and 

 reserving half dry, the other half was put in a glass 

 of saturated brine, and suffered to remain twenty- 

 two hours; then taken out, drained, and while wet 

 sprinkled with as much quicklime as would stick 

 to the grains. One hundred of these grains were 

 placed on wet cotton floating on hall' a pint of water 

 in a glass — the water fresh and pure, except for 

 the small remains of salt and lime adhering to the 

 grains. Some hundreds of the dry grains (not 

 steeped, or previously wetted,) were at the same 

 time placed on like wet cotton floating in another 

 glass. The remaining steeped seeds, and also the 

 dry, were sown in two rows, side by side, and 

 equally covered about an inch deep. 



Results. — The earth was then unusually dry. Yet 

 the seeds sown dry came up about twenty-four 

 hours earlier than those which had been steeped. 

 A like result ensued, and about as much difference 

 in the times of first sprouting of the respective 

 quantities of seed in the glasses. 



As the sprouting was so evidently retarded by the 

 steeping, the doubt arose whether the germinating 

 power was not also weakened and damaged, and in 

 many seeds destroyed. These imperfect experi- 

 ments could not fully bear on this question, as to 

 the sown seeds. As they had not been counted, 

 the failures to sprout could not be known. Of the 

 one hundred steeped seeds on floating cotton, new 

 sprouts continued to show for sixteen days, after 

 so placing the seeds, at which time nineteen still 

 remained not sprouted. However, perhaps some 

 of these seeds might have sprouted if observed 

 longer — or that they were prevented from sprouting 

 by being kept too wet. (A much surer and a per- 

 fect mode of trying the germination of seeds, is to 

 place them on cotton cloth folded to four or more 

 thicknesses, and covered by the like, placed on 

 some open or pervious support, and all kept moist 

 by pouring water on as often as needed. The su- 

 perfluous water, dripping off, can do no harm.) 



4.5. In 1845, there had been observed a very few 

 heads of smut in my crop of wheat — which; ac- 

 cording to my then views, made it necessary to 

 again resort to the remedy then deemed effectual 

 lor its object, but dangerous to its germination. 

 To lessen the risk, the wheat (after being iir.;t 

 washed in fresh water,) was not permitted to re- 



