THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



363 



his is kneaded, the better the bread. Let the 

 kneaded mass remain say from a half to three- 

 quarters of an hour to rise, then divide into pans, 

 where it should remain say fifteen minutes, care 

 being taken that it does not rise too much and 

 crack, then put the loaves into a quick oven and 

 bake, say three-quarters of an hour. If the oven 

 is not hot enough the bread will rise and crack ; if 

 too hot, the surface will harden too rapidly and 

 confine the loaf." 



For the Southern Planter. 



SMUT IN WHEAT. 



Mr. Editor, — Having seen in the Southern Planter 

 at various times articles on the disease of wheat, 

 known as smut, I presume it will not be thought 

 out of place to offer what I may think I know in 

 relation thereto. Early, probably in 1809, in fact, 

 when I first noticed smut in wheat — I presume it 

 had been observed and remarked on at an earlier 

 day, as about that time I heard my father and his 

 nearest neighhors, who were intelligent and active 

 farmers, engaged personally, superintending their 

 estates, that smut was propagated by contact; that 

 it was so contagious that pure wheat put into bags 

 in which smut-smitten wheat had been confined, 

 would, if sown, produce smut-infected wheat the 

 succeeding year; that every grain in a smut-in- 

 fected head would be smut, or in other words, that 

 a head could not be found containing sound and 

 smutted grains ; that a sound head and smut head 

 could not be found produced from the same root. 

 The idea was so strange, indeed I then thought 

 monstrous i that I disbelieved it at once and en- 

 tirely. But my brother and I determined to test 

 the truth of the neighborhood belief, and for that 

 purpose prepared ourselves with a small quantity 

 of pure wheat, which we soaked in pure spring 

 water until near sprouting. We then procured a 

 quantity of smut grains, which we pulverized, then 

 rolled the soaked wheat in the dust — sowed in a 

 .rye-field remote from other wheat ; harvested from 

 that sowing, pure wheat, without a head of smut. 

 Having obtained that result I was induced (my 

 brother having died) to make other researches, and 

 after much labor, I found heads partly affected by 

 smut. I also subsequently found sound heads and 

 smut heads from the same root. I thus was con- 

 vinced that smut was not infectious or contagious ; 

 that it was not a disettse of the head nor of the 

 root, but that it was produced by some other cause. 

 I commenced my researches anew at the commence- 

 ment of harvest, first by breaking innumerable 

 grains of smut in most of which (not all) I found 

 a small white worm, the head of which was black 

 or very dark. The same year, and near seeding 

 time I commenced my research, to ascertain what 

 became of the white worm of harvest. I found 

 instead, in most of the smut grains broken a small 

 grey bug; from others they had eaten out. I was 

 satisfied that the worm had become the bug. Then 

 my object was to ascertain what became of the 

 grey bug. At the time of the filling of the heads 

 of wheat in the succeeding spring, in examining 

 after the grey bug, I found it actually engaged in 

 puncturing the grains of wheat, crawling from grain 

 to grain, ascending atid puncturing as it ascended. 

 I found also that a very gentle tap on the stalk of 

 wheat would cause the insect to loosen its hold 

 and fall to the ground. I took a head of wheat on 



which I found one of those bugs operating near the 

 top, and upon examination thereof found that the 

 lower grains of wheat which were punctured first 

 were discolored, going fast into smut; that others 

 were yet but slightly tinged ; and those from which 

 I observed the bug to fall were not yet, as to ap- 

 pearance of color, infected. I then presumed I 

 had ascertained the cause of the smut, and every 

 year's observation since, for I have annually ob- 

 served, has confirmed my opinion, and every gen- 

 tleman who will examine for himself will, I think, 

 be also convinced that smut is produced by this 

 small bug. I am not enough informed on the sub- 

 ject of insects to assign it to a class or genus. After 

 being thoroughly convinced what produced smut, 

 the inquiry by what operation it could be prevented, 

 presented itself to my mind. I first caused ten 

 bushels of wheat, grown in a crop of which nearly 

 one-half was smut, to be washed in pure spring 

 water just drawn, which was done under my direc- 

 tion, by pouring the wheat from the bushel very 

 slowly into the water. Most of the grains infected 

 floated, and were removed from the tubs by the 

 skimmer; then caused the wheat thus prepared by 

 washing to be sown through the centre of a field 

 of forty acres, which was seeded by direction of 

 my father with the smut crop, from which I had 

 the ten bushels mentioned as washed, taken. The 

 result of the succeeding crop was, so far as the ten 

 bushels were used, with but slight infection on the 

 borders adjoining the wheat not washed — pure 

 wheat — while the balance of the field was, as pre- 

 viously, infected fully to the amount of one-half. 

 Any operation by which the grains of smut are re- 

 moved or pulverized, will prevent smut — so, also, 

 the use of any agent which will destroy the life of 

 the worm or insect, when in the worm or insect 

 state, will prevent smut. 



Respectfully, 



Braxton Davenport. 



For the Southern Planter. 



EXPERIMENTS IN USING LIME AND SALT, 

 AND THE RELATIVE VALUE OF PERUVIAN 

 GUANO AND KETTLEWELL'S SALTS. 



[Selected from the papers of the Nottoway Club.] 



Mr. President, — The following experiments were 

 made by the request of the Club: The first to test 

 the expediency of using lime and salt on our lands. 

 The land selected for this experiment I thought 

 needed lime as much as any on my plantation, or 

 in my neighborhood, as it was not originally very 

 good, is quite sandy, and is disposed to produce 

 sheep-sorrel. It was worn out many years ago, 

 permitted to grow up in pine, again cleared and 

 again exhausted. I have improved it, and it is 

 now a pretty good tobacco lot. On eight acres of 

 this lot I applied oyster-shell lime at the rate of 

 25 bnshels to the acre, at a cost of about 14j cents 

 per bushel, and one bushel of salt per acre, at the 

 price of 20 cents per bushel. Say for lime per 

 acre $3 62, and for salt 26 cents— making $3 88 

 per acre. The lot was fallowed for wheat in Au- 

 gust, 1852. In September I sowed one bushel of 

 salt to the acre, and dressed it with 25 bushels of 

 lime to the ' acre. Both were dragged in. The 

 wheat was sowed about the 10th of October, and 

 dragged in. The salt and lime, of course, remained 

 near the surface. As to the result, I have to report 



