OF SCOTLAND.

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process is indispensably necessary for preventing or lesseningthe disease of smut, which in nine cases out of ten would cer-tainly infect the crop in a greater or less degree if this wereomitted. Though the crop produced from pickled seed, besometimes partially infected with the disease of smut, this isentirely owing to inattention in executing the pickling pro-cess. There are various kinds of pickles employed, andeven different ways of using them. Perhaps the best pickleis stale urine, where it can be obtained in sufficient quantity,and a little prudent foresight may surely be able to providethat article on every farm. The most correct and effectualmode of pickling may be described thus: Take four tubs,two'smaller and two larger, the former of a size to containabout a bushel of wheat, and the latter large enough to holdthe smaller within them, but the smaller to have wire bot-toms. Fill one of the large tubs with water, and putting thewheat in the small one, immerse it in the water, and stir andskim off floating grains; renew the water as often as is ne-cessary, till it comes out almost quite clean; then raise thesmall vessel in which the wheat is contained, and repeat theprocess with the other large tub, which is to be filled withurine. In the meantime put in more wheat in the waterwith the other small vessels. When thoroughly washed andskimmed, let it drain a little; then empty it on a clean floor,and riddle quicklime upon it, turning it over, and mixing itwith a shovel, till it is sufficiently dry for sowing.

The rationale of this expedient to prevent smut is altoge-ther unknown, but its usefulness is undoubted; by the appli-cation of the powdered quicklime, besides drying the grainsufficiently, volatile alkali in vapour is evolved from the am-moniaeal salts of the urine; but whether the beneficial effectsare produced by this decomposition, or in what way any ofthe chemical agents, employed in this process, act upon thegrain, so as to prevent smut from infecting its produce, wehave as yet no means even of guessing. The following