On the Diseases of Wheat. 



1 



ject to it. It has been observed in several grasses, and I have 

 this year noticed it in the "'common oat-Hke grass " {Arrhena- 

 therum avenaceum). Like the bunt-fungus, so also may the smut- 

 fungus be kept in check by carefully steeping the infected grain ; 

 but this process does not here appear to be so thoroughly effective 

 as in the former case. Probably the earlier ripening of the spores 

 causes the sporules to disperse in the fields, and so keeps up a 

 greater out-door supply of them. If of two evils we might choose 

 the least, it would certainly be more desirable that the corn should 

 be attacked by smut than bunt. I know not how an idea has 

 originated, which I find prevalent among farmers, that a little 

 smut in the barley-crop is a good sign : I can only suppose they 

 mean to say the less the better. It seems to be most likely that 

 both bunted and smutted corn cannot be very noxious, as fowls 

 which have been fed with them receive no injury. At the same 

 time it is asserted that the straw of corn infested with the smut- 

 fungus is distasteful to cattle ; but I am not aware that any ex- 

 periments have hitherto been made with a view of ascertaining 

 whether it is actually injurious to their health. 



Section IV. — On the precautions to be taken against Bunt and 



Smut. 



Whatever some persons may hope, when they suggest the pos- 

 sibility of our effectually exterminating the bunt-fungus, provided 

 a system of carefully steeping all seed-wheat were universally to 

 prevail, the most sanguine calculations could never count upon 

 the extermination of the smut-fungus with any prospect of success. 

 Since the smut- fungus does not confine its attacks to corn, but is 

 also found in the grasses which grow in pastures and by the road- 

 side, a plentiful supply of sporules will always be kept up, to 

 warrant our believing that we shall never expunge this species 

 from the British Flora. Still we may feel assured, that pre- 

 cautionary measures may materially lessen an evil which cannot 

 be wholly avoided. Since the sporules of the two fungi which 

 produce bunt and smut enter the plants they attack by ab- 

 sorption at the roots, and since they are buried with those seeds 

 to whose surface they have attached themselves, — it is evident 

 that too great care cannot be bestowed in procuring clean seed, 

 or in purifying such as may accidentally be infected. From a 

 variety of considerations, it has always appeared to me strange 

 that practical agriculturists are accustomed to pay so little atten- 

 tion to the raising of pure seed-crops. There may be reasons, 

 which I do not properly appreciate, that would render it in- 

 expedient to cultivate a seed- crop apart from the rest of the 

 produce raised on a farm ; but I should have thought that it was 

 always worth while for every farmer to set aside some portion of 



