WHEAT. 
137 
Diseases of millet. 
Millet is subject to the attack of fungous plants, like rye and other cereals. The smut 
of millet, inasmuch as it is rarely cultivated, has never fallen under my own observation. 
It is, however, described by Corda as affecting the whole panicle or head, the original 
implantation of the fungus taking possession of the whole while invested in the leaf-sheath. 
The spores are oval, globular, and olive brown. As the whole panicle is infested, and 
becomes thereby a prominent object, it is easy to destroy or remove the fungus from the 
field, by removing the infected individuals and burning them ; for if suffered to remain in 
the field, it will propagate itself for a long time afterwards. 
For illustrations of the millet smut, see PI. LVII, fig. 3-7, Uredo destruens . Fig. 3, 
immature brand or smut; 4, mature, and shedding its spores ; 5, single fibres, natural 
size; 6, magnified : a, cells of the inner bark; b , spiral vessels of the woody bundles ; 
7, spores strongly magnified. 
V. WHEAT. 
It is unnecessary to speak of the importance of this grain : its value is appreciated by 
community; yet in saying this, we doubt much whether the influence of its culture and 
use is fully felt by a large portion of society. The doubt is expressed, from the belief that 
it has had no inconsiderable share of influence on the progress of civilization. It is the 
food of civilized man. It is the bread of refinement and taste. The loaf of the Genesee 
flour is the extreme luxury of polished life; while the hoecake of Indian corn, baked in 
ashes, is the symbol of savage fare. The former has become the standard food of the 
wealthy; while the latter finds its place on his table, rather as a curiosity than one of 
common resort. 
The culture of wheat, too, is a civilized act : it is almost incompatible with savage life. 
A perfect crop requires the exercise of the highest skill of the husbandman’s art : it is the 
ne plus ultra of agriculture. It is true, that thousands of acres wave their heads to the 
breeze in the west, under the management and culture of ignorance it may be; but it is 
in a virgin soil, which nature has made, and whose elements are mixed in right proportions 
to bring forth the crop. But soon this power fails, and, with its failure, the plant is a 
profitless product, until knowledge and art restore it to its standard value. 
In the present state of society, the place of wheat could not be compensated by either 
of the other cereals. None of them are really fitted for use alone; while wheat is so con 
stituted, that a mixture of the flour of any other grain is not required either for bread or 
pastry ; it is fit in itself for the purposes for which bread, in its widest meaning, is required. 
[Agricultural Report — Vol. ii.] 18 
