OF SCOTLAND.

475

dew, should so singularly occasion and encourage the growthof these lichens, is perhaps beyond the power of man to in-vestigate.

“ In its progress, the gradual increase and multiplicationof the parasitical lichens on the straw, ears, and husks of thegrowing wheat, produced, in many instances, an universal black-ness on whole fields, and the grains in the years were foundmore or less false, deaf, or unimpregnated, while much of theactually formed grains were small, shrivelled, and dark-co-rloured, having very little farinaceous matter in their substance.After this appearance of mildew, the wheat crop was muchlodged by heavy rains about the beginning of August; and inseveral instances the straw had become so tender by the ef-fects of the disease, that it burst open in bending under theweight of the rain. By this, entire fields were utterly destroy-ed, so as not to contain a single grain of wheat in the ears,and the straw became utterly unfit for fodder. In such cases,whole fields, that promised ample crops, were mown and ledinto the fold-yard as bottoming to the dunghills; while otherswere dried like hay, and built up in stacks, to bed the fold-yards, feeding-sheds, and stables, as wanted. In one instancein Northumberland, a removing tenant absolutely refused toreap and remove his last crop of wheat, which was utterlyuseless to him, but might serve his successor to convert intomuck, and he was ultimately found not liable to the chargewhich would have been for the sole benefit of another person.In other cases, where the plants remained alive and unbro-ken, the injury was not so entire, yet sufficiently distressing,by the diminution of the quantity of produce, and the dete-rioration of the quality of the grain which remained. Thisvaried in different proportions, according to circumstances.Crops that were estimated at the beginning of July to pro-duce 40 bushels of good wheat from each acre, were valued atharvest to give 6, 10, 12, or up to 20 bushels of very inferiorgrain, some of which did not command the price of inferior