288 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



way. Planted the 12th of May with a " white 

 flint" variety of corn. The cultivation of the 

 growing crop consisted mostly in the use of the 

 cultivator, which was run through between the 

 rows four times alternately in different direc- 

 tions — with one slight hoeing only with the) 

 hand hoe. Soil, gravelly loam. I calculate the 

 cost of cultivation, not including cost of manure 

 nor interest of land, at about $13 per acre. 

 The corn stood upon the hill till killed by the 

 frost, Avhen it was husked, each row separately, 

 and weighed in the ear, allowing 70 pounds to 

 the bushel. 



Louisville Journal.] H. H. Eastman. 



CHLORIDE OF LIME AS A REMEDY FOR 

 SMUT. 



Omitting a good deal of the article we ex- 

 tract below from the British Farmers' Magazine 

 for want of room, we come at once to the rem- 

 edy proposed for smut in wheat. We shalj 

 shortly publish the rest of the piece, which is 

 very interesting, and relates more immediatel}^ 

 to the nature and cause of smut. 



* ^ * ^ ^ ^ 



No circumstance in their history is so well es- 

 tablished as the fact that if healthy seed be sown, 

 which had been mixed with the spores of either 

 bunt or smut, the ears of the future plants will 

 be found to be affected with these blights re- 

 spectively, and also that if (what we may call) 

 infected seed be either carefully cleaned from 

 the adhering spores of the blight, or steeped in 

 some chemical solution which will kill the 

 spores, but not the seed, the plants will in due 

 time bear healthy ears. The latter of these 

 processes is what farmers call pickling or dress- 

 ing the seed, and the solution employed is gene- 

 rally known by the name of the wheat-steep. 

 As the uredo segetum, or dust-brand (that 

 which is most prevalent in oats, barley, and 

 here) is, for the most part, dispersed before the 

 crop ripens, steeps are for the most part useless. 

 The uredo caries, or bunt, on the other hand, 

 remains in the ear, and will, if it exists in the 

 field and be thrashed with the general crop, 

 most surely contaminate the grain. It is, there- 

 fore, for the purpose of preventing this form of 

 the blight that these steeps are most generally 

 employed. 



I before mentioned that some of the grains 

 may escape being broken in the operation of 

 thrashing. These may readily be removed by 

 simply steeping the seed in water, when the af- 

 fected grains will be found to rise to the surface. 

 Many of the blighted grains must have been 

 broken and their contents mixed with the seed. 

 It then becomes necessary to destroy their vi- 

 tality. This has been done by various means. 



In Kent, the practice has prevailed of immers- 

 ing the seed for a short time in very hot waterj 

 a method found to answer the purpose admira- 

 bly in the hands of an experienced person. 

 Lime, blue-stone, or corrosive sublimate dissolved 

 in water, stale urine, and white arsenic, have 

 been all used, to which may be added sulphate 

 of soda and quick-lime — a dressing highly re- 

 commended by a French commission M'hich in- 

 quired and reported on the subject. 



Whatever may be the efficacy of the other 

 dressings enumerated, there ought to be but one 

 opinion as to the inadvisability of employing for 

 this purpose so active a poison as arsenic. The 

 French commission to which I before alluded, 

 found it to be by no means so efficacious as other 

 substances of a more innocent nature ; while it 

 has been ascertained that the flesh of birds de- 

 stroyed by picking the grain out of the ground 

 has been rendered poisonous, and if eaten would 

 certainly produce serious effects. 



In the course of my examination, some years 

 since, of this subject, it occurred to me to apply 

 a solution of chloride of lime to the spores of 

 the bunt fungus, and watch the effect produced. 

 The offensive smell, so characteristic of the fun- 

 gus, was immediately destroyed, and after a 

 few hours the spores were ruptured and disor- 

 ganized. 



These facts encouraged me to try the effect of 

 the chloride of lime solution, when applied as a 

 wheat-steep, and at the same time to compare it 

 with that which had been so much praised by 

 the French commission before alluded to — 

 namely, sulphate of soda and quick-lime. I in- 

 stituted with the consent of the council of this 

 Society,^ at their Botanic Garden, the experi- 

 ment which I shall now describe. 



I procured 4 lbs. of the finest and cleanest 

 wheat seed, 1 lb. of which I set apart without 

 any preparation : the remaining three parts I 

 mixed equally with a large quantity of the 

 spores of the bunt fungus, until the whole was 

 rendered a uniform brown color. One pound of 

 this infected seed I then steeped for two hours 

 in a solution of chloride of lime, (made by mix- 

 ing for two hours 1 lb. of the chloride to one 

 gallon of water) and dried it by sifting fine sand 

 over it. Another pound of the infected seed I 

 steeped for two hours in a saturated solution of 

 Glauber's salts, when it was removed from the 

 solution and dried by sifting over it a little 

 fresh-slaked quick-lime. The fourth pound of 

 seed (which was infected by the bunt) was not 

 subjected to any treatment. These four parcels 

 of seed were then sown in four separate, but 

 contiguous, plots of ground. No difference was 

 observable in the period of sprouting or germi- 

 nation of the seed, but the result of the experi- 

 ment, which was most striking while the crop 

 was standing, may be thus stated : — 



* The above paper was read before the sec- 

 tional meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, on 

 the evening of the 30th of November last. 



