47S

ON THE AHABLE LAND

“ Upon the whole, this complicated disease, by which suchserious injury is caused to farmers and the public, appears tohave been occasioned by the unfavourable state of the weatherat the time of flowering, combined with a continuance of un-favourable weather during the after progress of the wheat infilling and ripening, and to be utterly unsusceptible of anypreventive, precautionary, or curative attempts by any humanefforts.”

Rust is another disorder incident to wheat crops, in whicha brown or orange coloured dust gathers on the stalks andleaves, occasioning the plants to become weak and sickly froma deprivation of nourishment. Perhaps this rust may be aspecies of lichen or fungus, entirely different from that whichconstitutes the disease of mildew already described; but ob-servations are Still a-wanting to ascertain this fact. It is saidto be occasioned by excessive heats and unusual drought;which of course, like the former diseases of mildew and blight,are beyond the power of man to prevent.

There are three other distempers to which wheat is liable,which are not much known in Scotland ; 1. Red gum , whichis a partial appearance of redness, or rather a sort of deeporange colour on the chaff of the car; 2. Coclcle-eared , orsmall ears like the root of the plant cockle; and 3. Root-fal-len, when it is loosened at the roots. In some cases also,when the weather is cold and ungenial at the time when theear bursts from the shoot-blade, the points of some ears arecaught in the angle where the two edges of the leaf join, bywhich they are forced into a curve, and in such ears therecertainly is a deficiency of grain, or partial blight. But thishas not been seen so extensive on any particular crop as tomerit the name of a disease.

Before quitting this subject, it may be proper to notice anopinion that has been propagated, and even on high autho-lity, “ that blighted and mildewed wheats may be safely used