ee 
BLIGHT. 
by writers on agriculture and gardening of almost 
all ages preceding the present, to causes which 
were either conflicting, mystical, or at best alto- 
gether misunderstood. Some of the most familiar 
and devastating kinds of it, have at length been 
fully investigated, and are known to be caused 
by insects, by fungi, or by well-defined chemical 
or meteorological agencies, and have been de- 
scribed with an accuracy and a minuteness which 
enable us readily to distinguish them from one 
another, to designate them by distinctive names, 
and to point out at once their origin, their in- 
dications, and their prevention, alleviation, or 
cure. See the articles MinpEw, Smut, Rust, Apuis, 
Funeus, Honry-Drew, Ganerenn, Conrorrion, 
ConsumpTion, SurrocaTion, Alctpium, and some 
others. Yet one or two kinds of blight which are 
still mentioned by most writers under the name of 
blight, and which are either principally or wholly 
ascribable to meteorological influence, may here 
be noticed. 
One kind of blight is occasioned by prema- 
turely mild weather, followed by sharp frosts and 
easterly winds, in spring. The very early appear- 
ance of buds and blossoms excites delight in the 
inexperienced, but apprehension in the judicious; 
for subsequent frosts and east winds may very 
probably arrest the flow of sap from the roots, 
occasion the young leaves and shoots to shrivel 
and die, and cause the arrested juices to swell 
and burst the tender vessels, and to .become the 
prey of innumerable aphides. The general result 
is either the death of the plant, the destruction 
of its growth for the season, or at the least the 
infliction upon it of a great degree of temporary 
feebleness. The aphides which feed upon the ex- 
travasated juices, though but a consequence of 
the blight, are sometimes mistakingly regarded 
as the cause of it, and supposed to be wafted by 
the east wind. Unskilful gardeners occasionally 
aggravate the blight by their very solicitude to 
avert it, closely matting up its trees or keeping 
them protected during the day, so as to render 
them so exceedingly tender that even a slight 
subsequent frost does them material damage. 
The sudden evaporation of hoar-frost from the 
opening leaflets of a young hedge, by a powerful 
sun, in a calm vernal atmosphere, sometimes so 
utterly destroys the incipient shoots and kills all 
the young foliage as to produce, in a few days, 
the appearance of a severe scorching by fire. A 
hedge thus blighted, occasionally remains leafless 
throughout the summer, or only shows some feeble 
symptoms of exfoliation toward the beginning of 
autumn; and it ought, in every case, to be left 
untouched till, by its own vitality or without 
any artificial appliance, it has recovered strength 
and vigour. 
Another kind of blight occurs in summer, when 
farm crops have attained their full growth, and 
is usually ascribed to sultry and pestilential va- 
pour. This blight formerly made great havoc 
upon the vineyards of Italy, and still partially 
BLINDNESS. 451 
scathes some of our potato crops, and scorches and 
shrivels considerable portions of our crops of hops 
and wheat. The Romans observed that it gene- 
rally occurred at the season of the ripening» of 
grapes, about noon, after short and heavy show- 
ers, followed by sunshine, and that it made the 
greatest devastation in the centre of vineyards ; 
and the English hop-growers of the present day 
observe that it occurs most frequently about the 
end of July, after rain followed by hot sunshine, 
and that, whether general or partial, it usually 
begins in the centre of the hop-ground, and in- 
flicts there its largest proportion of injury. In 
one instance which was minutely observed, the 
blight happened a little before noon, during a 
very light or little more than perceptible wind, 
and ran in the direction of the wind and at right 
angles with the direction of the sunbeams. See 
the article Frre-Biast. A marked instance of 
this summer blight in wheat, is recorded in the 
following terms by a close observer. “In the 
summer of 1809, I had watched the progress of 
the growth of a field of wheat on rather a light 
and sandy soil, merely from having had occasion 
to pass through it every Sunday in going to 
serve a church. It came up with every appear- 
ance of health, and also into ear, with a fair 
prospect of ripening well. I had taken particular 
notice of it on a Sunday about the beginning of 
July, as exceeding anything I could have ex- 
pected on such a soil. But on the following Sun- 
day, I was surprised to find a portion of the crop, 
on the east side of the field, to the extent of 
several acres, totally destroyed,—being shrunk 
and shrivelled up to less than one half the size of 
what it had formerly been, with an appearance 
so withered and blasted that I for some time 
imagined I had got into the wrong field. The 
rest of the field produced a fair crop.” But 
though such instances as this are ascribed wholly 
to atmospherical causes, a careful inspection of 
the straw might possibly detect the presence of 
minute parasitic fungi. 
A third kind of blight, popularly called in Eng- 
land the white blight, is occasioned by deficiency 
or failure of proper nourishment; it occasionally 
attacks all kinds of plants, both wild and culti- 
vated ; it is, as might be expected, most common 
in thin gravelly irretentive soils, in very dry sea- 
sons; and it usually consists in throwing the 
plants prematurely into blossom, and ripening 
the ear or pod before the body or more than the 
mere embryo of the seed is formed.—The only 
known palliatives or preventatives of these three 
kinds of blight are proper condition and thorough 
culture of the soil. — 
BLIGHT-BUG. See Apuis. 
BLINDNESS. The want or deprivation of - 
sight. Blindness occurs frequently in horses, 
and very greatly deteriorates their value,—ren- 
dering them useless for some kinds of work, and 
only half useful for others. The causes of it are 
too obscure or recondite to be detected before 
