THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



287 



the South, where hay is not generally produced. 

 As forage it is equal in nutritious qualities to 

 the best timothy hay, while the land of tolera- 

 ble fertility is often double that of the best 

 meadows. When cultivated for the grain, from 

 forty to sixty bushels per acre may be easily 

 grown. It should be sown exclusively for the 

 hay, or for the seed. It is too frequently sown 

 with a view to secure both seed and hay from the 

 same crop, and consequently the seed is light 

 and chaffy, and the hay coarse and inferior. 



When hay is the object, from sixteen to 

 twenty quarts of seed should be sown upon an 

 acre and harrowed in. It may be sown any 

 time from May to the middle of July. If sown 

 early, it will be ready to cut in August. In 

 order to have sweet, nutritious hay, it should 

 be cut before the seed is ripe and while the 

 straw is green, and cured the same as timothy, 

 or, after being exposed to the sun a few hours, 

 it may be racked into cocks and cured like 

 clover hay. When well cured, cattle and hor- 

 ses pefer it to the best hay, and for working 

 animals it imparts more strength than any 

 rough food. 



It is sometimes cultivated for the grain, 

 which for feeding is equal to corn and more 

 valuable than oats, but it should be ground and 

 ^he meal mixed with the cut hay or straw. 

 Hogs and chickens are also fond of it ; but the 

 present demand for it for sowing renders 

 it too valuable to be fed to stock ; the demand 

 has long been greater than the supply, and 

 hence the price is high. If farmers would sow 

 it with the exclusive object of raising good seed, 

 it would be made a profitable crop. It has 

 commanded from $1 75 to $2 a bushel during 

 the present season. * 



When millet is raised with a view to obtain 

 the best crop of grain for seed, regardless of 

 the hay, it is best sown with the drain drill, 

 putting from six to eight quarts of seed upon 

 an acre. On good land, well prepared and 

 sown in this way, the heads are large and well 

 filled, often yielding sixty or seventy bushels 

 per acre. 



One advantage in cultivating millet is, it can 

 be sown at any time most convenient for the 

 farmer, from spring to midsummer. — Valley 

 Farmer. 



Miscroscopic Discoveries of the Nature of 

 Blight in Wheat. 



" M. C. Davaine has lately published, 

 in the Oumptes Rendus, the result of his 

 researches into the nature of blight in 

 wheat, of which account the following is 

 an abstract : 



Wheat is subject to a disease, which, in 

 rainy seasons, is very prevalent in certain 

 districts; it is known under the name of 

 blight. This disease is caused by micros- 

 copic animalcules, whose organization is 



similar to that of the cylindric worms, 

 which live as parasites in the vorticello, 

 and in man. They are helminthes, of the 

 order of nematoides — thread worms. — 

 These wheat w T orms have the remarkable 

 capability of remaining in a dry and horny 

 state for years, and then regaining life and 

 motion on being moistened, and this pro- 

 cess can be repeated eight or ten times. 

 It was long disputed whether they were 

 animals or vegetables. On examining a 

 grain of blighted wheat, it is found to con- 

 sist of a hard shell, filled with w T hite pow- 

 der. This powder ' contains no trace of 

 starch ; it consists entirely of microsco- 

 pic threads, which are dry, stiff worms- 

 When placed in water, these worms exhi- 

 bit hygroscopic motion for a few moments. 

 When the wheat is new, they soon make 

 other manifold and considerable move- 

 ments, which are unmistakeable signs of 

 life. When the grain is old, it requires 

 several hours, or sometimes even days, be- 

 fore they resume motion and life. In a 

 single grain of affected wheat, there are 

 generally several thousands of these 

 worms. They have no sexual distinctions; 

 they are the offspring of other forms. Be- 

 fore a blight comes on, there are found 

 from two to twelve larger worms in each 

 kernel which is about to be affected, and 

 the females of these larger worms have 

 been observed to lay eggs. If blighted 

 wheat is sown with sound, the worms, 

 after a few weeks, and when the sound 

 wheat is germinated, are awakened into 

 life by the moisture of the earth, break 

 through the thin shell which has confined 

 them, and follow the dictates of individual 

 enterprise. The great mass die an unfruit- 

 ful death, but the few reach the germina- 

 ted wheat, and effect a lodgment in the 

 stalk under the forming leaves. They are 

 carried up by the growth of the plant, and 

 in wet weather *by their own exertions. — 

 As they are dried up most of the time, 

 they suffer no considerable change, until 

 they enter into the forming kernels and 

 lay their eggs. The blighted wheat is no 

 more grain than nutgalls are fruit. Its 

 tissue is composed of hypertrophical cells. 

 It is only after the worms •"have entered 

 this tissue, that their re-productive organs 

 become distinct. Both males and females 

 become much larger, but the females are 

 larger than the males, and lay a multitude 

 of eggs, in which can be seen an embryo, 



