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government, ovens, * into which the diseased corn was put, and it came out 
free from this disease, and capable, when sown, of germinating. 
It may yet be doubted how far this drying of the seed may exhale 
parts 'f which serve as the first nourishment of the embryo plantule: for as 
As soon as the Stalks begin to rise, if the blades are opened so as to discover the young ear, it 
will be found to be already distempered; and in this case, the pith or inside of the stalk likewise 
appears sometimes black. 
As soon as the ear appears out of the covering which the blades form, it looks shrunk. All the 
coverings of the grain are so altered and shrivelled, that the smut appears through them. As the 
powder in such grains has little cohesion, it is easily washed away by the rains, or carried off by the 
wind. If any of it remains, it is only on the points of the sound grain. 
When corn thus blacked in the point has been kept for several years, and frequently sifted 
through an iron sieve, this colour vanishes. It may also be taken: off immediately, by rubbing it 
with a cloth: which shews that the impression is only superficial. 
* This idea might probably be derived from our own illustrious countryman Tull, who recom¬ 
mends a mode of preserving wheat by drying it on a hair-cloth in a malt-kiln, with no other fuel 
but clean straw, and no greater heat than that of the sunshine. In this situation the wheat remained 
from four hours to twelve hours, according to the previous dampness of it. Mr. Tull knew a fanner 
in Oxfordshire, who purchased wheat when it was cheap, and kept it by thus drying it for many 
years, and made a large fortune by selling it again in dearer seasons. The life of the seed was not 
destroyed by this process; as he asserts that some of it grew which had been kept in this manner 
seven years. 
Darwin, in his Phytologia, p. 363, says, some time ago an insect called a corn-butterfly committed 
great ravages in France while in its vermicular state, so as to ruin two hundred parishes. A cure 
for it was at length discovered, which consisted in drying the wheat in an oven before sowing it, 
and thus exposing it to such a degree of heat as would destroy the eggs of the insect without in¬ 
juring the seed. Was not this disease the smut ? 
f Dr. Darwin, in his Phytologia, says, (Sect. xvi. 4.) Where the fruit which surrounds any kind 
of seeds can be sowed along with them, it may answer some useful purpose. Thus the fruit of 
crabs, quinces, and some hard pears, will lie all the winter uninjured, cohered only with their au¬ 
tumnal leaves, and will continue much to nourish their germinating seeds in the spring. So the 
holly-berry and the ivy-berry remain during the winter months uninjured by the rains or frosts, and 
undevoured by birds or insects, and contribute to nourish their germinating seeds, when they fail on 
the ground in the spring. The acrid husk of walnuts sowed along with them, preserves the sweet 
kernel from the attack of insects; the same must be the use of the acrid oil of the cashew-nut. 
The hawthorn possesses both a nutritive covering and a hard shell for the above purposes; and the 
seeds of roses are armed with stiff, pointed bristles, as well as furnished with a nutritious fruit, so 
long known as an agreeable conserve in the shops of medicine, conserva cynosbati; the former 
constitutes a defence against insects, and the latter supplies a reservoir of nutriment for the ger¬ 
minating seeds. 
Thus Mr. Sneyde of Belmont in Staffordshire, having observed some seeds, which came acci¬ 
dentally among raisins, to grow readily, directed many different seeds to be sent from the West 
Indies covered with raisins, and others in sugar, and others of the same kind in the usual manner 
of sending them, and found that those immersed in sugar or covered with raisins, looked extremely 
well, and grew readily; whereas many of the other sorts had lost all vegetative power. 
Miller also observes, that seeds made dry and kept dry in bags, retain for a long time their 
vegetative property; whilst the same, when packed up in bottles closely corked and sealed, will 
not grow. 
Hence it is probable, that even in seeds, as with fruits, some fermentation or vital action is 
going on, and we observe in an egg a reservoir for air—and the aperture near the hilum may be 
for the admission of air, for seeds that have been varnished are found not to vegetate. 
