disease, which is a species of fungus, the sporules of which are so exceedingly minute that they are taken up and ascend through the pores and sap vessels of the plants.

Professor Johnston observed, it is said, "that the smut had received the name of uredo segetum; that these puff balls or sporules were so minute that it would take 2,800 of them to cover an inch. There was no doubt that they ascended through the plant. By examination, it could be seen where they had come up. The tubes of the stalk were filled with black matter that had come through the vessels, affecting first the straw, and then getting into the ear, where it spreads itself all over. After passing through the stalk, the smut fixed itself under the root of the flower, which it rendered barren; and as the grain approached perfection, the puff balls became tight, and burst, showing black dust of very minute particles, so minute that it took about 1,100,000 of them to lie across a single inch." He then went on to speak of the manner in which smut was propagated. It was in the first place sown along with seed. Very often it was so minute that thousands of the particles might attach to a single grain, and yet not be visible to the naked eye. Oats are more subject to smut than other grain. Rye is never attacked by it, and wheat seldom. Grasses are sometimes attacked by it, and much injured.

"Certain substances have been employed for the prevention of smut. The substances used are, sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol, wine, common salt, wood ashes, lime water, and sometimes arsenic. The application of these substances to the seed grain destroys the black dust, or the spores of the fungus; and, in addition to this, they make the grain grow better. Professor Johnston mentions an instance where a large field of oats was divided into several parts, and the seed doctored in different ways-some not being doctored at all, other portions being dressed with guano, and others steeped in the following composition: phosphate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, nitrate of potash, common salt, sal ammoniac, or sulphate of ammonia. One pound of each, in ten gallons of water, to steep 300 pounds of seed, the moist seed to be dried with gypsum or quicklime.

"On looking at that field, it was found that the grain to which nothing had been done was smutted; that which was dressed with guano was also smutted, as was likewise a portion where Campbell's steep had been used; but there were only two or three stalks affected with smut in the grain steeped in the composition above mentioned.

"The smut which is sometimes found in wheat, called dust brand, or pepper brand, is supposed by some to be a different species of uredo from that above spoken of. It is sometimes called uredo fœtida. But the same remedies against its attacks are used with equal effect."

In an agricultural paper, we find also the following statement as to an approved method of remedying this evil: "A gentleman near Baltimore has for several years been in the habit of washing his seed wheat in a strong solution of glauber salts, (sulphate of soda,) with the view of preventing smut, with complete success. He says he makes the solution strong enough to bear an egg, fills a tub half full of it, and then pours in half a bushel of wheat at a time, stirs it round well with the hand, skims off all the floating grains and other foul matters, dips out the wheat with a colander, lets it drain, spreads it out on the barn floor till not quite dry, then rolls it in air-slaked lime, and sows it. One man can wash and prepare in this way as much as a dozen men can put in the ground. Every descrip

tion of foul seed, garlic, and filth, (except cockle,) is effectually taken out of the wheat by this process. He has no smut in the wheat since he adopted this plan. Glauber salts can be purchased by the barrel at about one cent and a half a pound. The wheat swells while undergoing the process about 25 per cent.; that is, four bushels will become five. If, after washing, it be left upon the barn floor all night, and thus become dry, it will lose a large portion of its increased bulk. It is better, however, to put it in the ground while somewhat moist, as germination will take place sooner; and the quicker any seed germinates after being put in the ground, the better. Besides the great object in view, the getting rid of smut and other impurities, there can be no doubt that a most valuable nutritive and stimulating principle is added to the seed grain, in the soda that is absorbed. Farmers will do well to try the experiment. They may be assured it will do no harm, and it is not very costly. Probably a dollar's worth of the salts would be sufficient for fifty or a hundred bushels of seed."

A distinguished agriculturist recommends the following recipe, on the information of one who said he knew it to be infallible, after many experiments: "Dissolve a pound of blue stone in as much water as will cover five bushels of wheat, and let it remain about eighteen hours before it is sown, and you will never have smut in your wheat."

We find, also, in one of the numbers of the Southern Cultivator, the recipe for the prevention of smut in wheat, which we give as we find it:

Mr. EDITOR: I discover that you have several correspondents, giving various means to prevent the smut in wheat; and, as this is an important matter, I will give you one.

My neighbor, Alexander R. Bell, of this county, has long been considered a great wheat grower, and a great many persons are in the habit of sending some distance to purchase his wheat, on account of its superior quality. About the time he was cleaning his crop, I happened in, and he took me to his barn, to show me his great yield. I was astonished to find that there was no smut in his wheat, and remarked it to him. no; I never have smut in my wheat. I inquired the means of preventing He said, it, and he gave me the following: Sow your wheat the first of October, and when you harvest let what you intend to make seed of remain five or six days longer in the field before it is cut, and by this means all the grains will be perfectly ripe and good. This is all he does to prevent the smut, and he never has it in his wheat.

I stated that I had been out to see his yield, which I found to be fine. He sowed one bushel and a peck of wheat, and it yielded him forty bushels and a fraction over; it was as nice and as fine wheat as I ever saw, and made good flour. Yours, respectfully,

COLUMBIA COUNTY, GEORGIA.

W.

An editor of an agricultural journal recently established in Cincinnati, Ohio, a good judge in these matters, says, that the failure of the wheat crop in Ohio is often falsely ascribed to rust, as he states that many fields said to be destroyed from rust, on examination, "were in reality very little affected by rust at all. The straw merely turned brown because it had not the materials to give it a better color; and the berry did not fill, simply because the plant could not obtain the proper elements for it to fill with." To obviate the evil which arises from the mixture of cheat with wheat, the following is said, in an agricultural paper from which it is taken, to be a good method:

"Instead of having a riddle, as ordinarily used, in the fan, place a board in the riddle's place; it may be an inch or two narrower than the riddle in width. By this means, the cheat is carried nearly off the screen board; and, with the aid of a strong wind, is driven pretty effectually out at the second run of the grain.

"The present year I undertook to clean some Mediterranean wheat, which had a pretty large share of cheat in it. By the aid of the above plan, at the second run, it was pronounced by an old and experienced farmer to be clean enough. I believe I might have run it five or six times the ordinary way without having it as clean. Thus I saved much labor, as well as some time, though it must be let through slowly and regularly, to prevent the falling sheet of wheat from obstructing the passage of the cheat while blowing out and falling through the fan sieve. This I accomplished by resting the half bushel on my shoulder, and letting the grain fall gradually into the fan hopper, which was aided by the jar of the fan in motion." This last precaution may not be necessary where hoppers are new, and properly constructed; but ours was old, and worn loose at the connecting points."

In the report for 1843, some notice was taken of a few varieties of wheat, and their adaptedness to our country. We find in the last volume of the New York State Agricultural Society a valuable essay on this subject, by General Harmon, of that State, who has done much to improve the culture of this valuable grain; and though it has been more or less published in the various agricultural journals in our country, yet it is believed that some extracts from it (in appendix No. 3) will not prove an unacceptable addition to this report. Different varieties are of course adapted to different soils and climates.

The following is a notice taken from a public journal respecting a kind called the China or hardware wheat, said to have been originally found in a crate of China ware, imported from the north of China, and by the way of Canada introduced into this country. It is said to average from 150 to 180 grains to the head, and that it will yield from 45 to 50 bushels to the acre, and ripens 8 or 10 days sooner than any species of wheat. The crop is said to have been ripe at an early date.

Mention is made in some of the papers of a species of wheat, in the vicinity of Cincinnati, called Alabama wheat, from the fact that half a pint was brought from that State in 1839. It is said that 2,000 bushels of this variety has been raised in 1844, in the Whitewater valley, and that it takes the preference over all the wheat brought into the market at Cincinnati, weighing from 64 to 68 pounds to the bushel, and the yield averaging. 30 bushels to the acre. Some of this variety may perhaps be received for distribution this winter at the Patent Office.

The Black Sea wheat, a spring wheat, has been already alluded to as a favorite variety in Vermont. It is said to be very hardy, free from rust, and produces a better yield than any other of the varieties there cultivated, especially on unfavorable soils. It is stated, by one conversant with it, that he believes it will yield better there than rye, even where rye has heretofore been considered the safest crop.

The flint wheat is highly commended in Michigan, and it is stated, that where it is used it is quite free of the fly. One person says, that in Unadilla were two fields immediately adjoining each other, of like soil, and both prepared and sown alike, and about the same time, one with

white flint and the other with the bald red-chaffed variety. "The flint stands fair, while the red-chaff is not worth harvesting and threshing. The flint also is considered less liable to rust."

The Mediterranean wheat seems still to meet with favor, although some doubt whether, on its improvement by cultivation, it will be found to resist the attacks of the fly and the rust. One of the most decisive trials of its value is found in the account given in some of the agricultural_journals of the experiment of Major H. Capron, of Laurel Factory, Prince George's county, Maryland, who, it is stated, made from this variety of wheat, in twenty acres of land, at the rate of forty-three bushels to the acre, when five years ago the soil would not have yielded seven bushels of oats to the acre. The blue-stem wheat distributed the past year is also considered as a valuable kind for cultivation.

The agricultural journals and reports of societies have abounded with accounts of individual crops, which show a large increase on the usual average yield. The following are a few of the interesting facts relating to the production of this grain. "Mr. J. Underwood, of the town of Middlesex, in the State of New York, cut fifty-two bushels and fifty-six pounds of wheat on one acre, selected from about thirty, which he thought would yield the same amount." Some of this seed has been sent for, to distribute from the Patent Office this winter.

Again a specimen of white flint wheat, raised by Myron A. Adams, of East Bloomfield, New York, is mentioned, one hundred and seventy-four pounds of which produced one hundred and forty-four and a half pounds of flour, and thirty-two pounds of bran and middlings, averaging fortyeight pounds of flour to the bushel.

The following is taken from the Baltimore American:·

“Great yield.—We are informed that Mr. John Maught, of Middletown valley, in this State, has now growing on his farm, from a single kernel of wheat, seventy-seven perfect heads, well filled. The same gentleman has also one hundred acres of splendid wheat now fit for the sickle.

In the English papers, allusion is made to a new kind, called "Baratta wheat," which is said to be very prolific. A single stool or roost consisted of seven ears, each containing eighty corns; thus giving the product of five hundred and sixty from a single grain. Mention is likewise made, in a recent English paper, of a crop of wheat, the produce of two acres and one rood of ground, which, when threshed out, yielded one hundred and fiftythree bushels of the finest quality.

As showing the possible extent to which the culture of wheat may be carried, the following, extracted from an agricultural journal, deserves mention: "By planting the kernels just six inches apart each way, and feeding the plant on food containing in a soluble state all the elements necessary to build up its entire system, including the materials to form the straw as well as the berry, a gentleman in England has grown at the rate of three hundred and twenty bushels per acre."

The editor of the American agriculturist, from whom this statement is published, says: "It has been asserted by some, and sneered at by others in this country, that 100 bushels of wheat could be easily grown upon a single acre." It will be seen that the following little experiment in England produced at the rate of 320 bushels :

"The imperial bushel contains 2,218.192 cubic inches; the Winchester (our common bushel) 2,150.42; the imperial bushel, therefore, is to the

Winchester as 1 to 0.969447. The English quarter of wheat is 8 imperial bushels of 70 pounds each, equal to 9 American bushels of 60 pounds each.

"At the end of August, 1843, I planted in my garden 32 grains of wheat, at six inches distance, an inch and a half deep; the seed was of the firstrate quality. This seed produced this year 32 plants, having from 10 to 28 stems and ears each; the average number of ears was 16; the average weight of each plant 14 ounce. An acre of land would contain, at six inches distance, 174,240 plants; the produce, 304,940 ounces, or nearly 19,600 pounds-320 bushels, or 40 quarters, per acre. The expense of dibbling would be more than saved by the diminished quantity of seed required. I do not mean to state that such a result would be obtained upon a large scale, but I think it is worthy of trial. When we know that the average produce is only 2 quarters per acre, and that it is possible to grow 40, it will be allowed that there is ample scope for improvement. Try a breadth in your fields an inch and a half deep; put one grain (and one only) in each hole, plant it at six or eight inches distant. Be sure to plant good seed. Get as much produce as you can, but go for 40 quarters per acre.'

More attention should be paid to the culture of the wheat crop, as, owing to the land being robbed of its appropriate chemical elements by the abstraction of the straw and the grain, the soil becomes unfitted for this grain. It is stated in the report of the Farmers' Club of New York, that the quantity there has been diminished from 30 to 10 or 15 bushels per The same process seems to be going on in Ohio and other Western States, and should be checked in time. Certain chemical substances are necessary for the formation of the straw and the grain, and these should be supplied if both are carried off from the land.

acre.

Some experiments have been given in the agricultural journals, also showing the importance of the drill husbandry for wheat over the broadcast method of sowing. One of the most interesting of these is that of Charles Noble; for which, see appendix No. 4.

It will be seen that, while at least 3 pecks of seed per acre was sown, the crop also was increased 74 bushels; so that the grain was 8 bushels and 1 peck to the acre. The amount of straw also increased 12 per cent., and the amount of grain 27 per cent. per acre. According to Sprengel's Analysis, it is stated that 1,000 pounds of wheat leave 11.77 pounds, and the same quantity of wheat straw leaves 35.18 pounds of ash. Of the straw ash, 23.70 are silica, without which substance it is impossible to grow either wheat or rye. Thus, it is plain that the agriculturist, though he may sell the grain, must not rob his field of the straw; and that a gain in straw (as made by Mr. Noble) is a real gain for perpetuating the fertility of his fields.

Dr. Noble's system of topdressing, in which he has been so successful, and which may be found in the Boston Cultivator, deserves to be read with attention, as it decisively proves that care only is necessary to make our crops far more valuable.

To apply manure directly to the wheat crop, it is said, is injurious, as it produces weeds, and forces the growth of the wheat, and renders it thus more liable to blight and rust.

The nutritious quality of flour has been ascertained, it is said, by a French