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HON. WILLOUGHBY NEWTON ON THE PREVENTION OF SMUT
 The
following letter comes very opportunely
this time. We sincerely thank its
enlightened author for favoring us with
it and we are sure will also receive the
cordial thanks of every of our journal
for it so happens that the Smut during
the past season proved a dreadful to the
wheat growers throughout an extensive of
our country. The ripe experience of Mr.
Newton as well as his high character
will impart additional weight to his
communication and therefore commend it
to the attention of our agricultural
friends.
To the Editor of the American Farmer
– The article in your last number, on
the Smut in wheat, reminds me of several
unanswered letters received from various
quarters desiring information as to a
preventive of this loathsome pest. I
avail myself of your columns to give a
brief answer to my correspondents as
well as to yours, who are seeking
information on the same subject. The
remedy is cheap, certain and of
easy application. About it there
can be no doubt whatever, as my own
experience and that of many of my
neighbors and of thousands of farmers in
other parts of this country and Europe
attests. It consists simply in
sprinkling the seed with a strong
solution of Glauber Salts and stirring
it until each grain is wet, and then
coating it with freshly slaked
lime. I believe there has been no
instance of failure when this remedy has
been properly applied. It has been
perfectly successful in every instance
in which it has been tried by myself and
my neighbors whose crops I have
carefully observed and whenever I have
failed to use it, from confidence in the
purity of the seed or other cause I have
suffered severely. I have no doubt I
have lost $500 this year on one farm,
where it was neglected, and the entire
loss might have been avoided by an
expenditure of less than ten dollars. I
do not deem it necessary to enter into
details as my views are not original but
were derived from the very satisfactory
publication of M. Mathieu De Bombasle, a
distinguished French agriculturist and
philosopher, which was translated for
the Farmers Register and republished in
the 3d volume of that work page 743.
You could not render a more effectual
service to the farming interest than by
publishing entire this valuable and
interesting contribution to Agricultural
science. It in fact contains all that
need said upon a subject now of the
highest practical importance.
Willoughby Newton. Westmoreland County Va., August 7, 1852. |
