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parcels vegetated at the same time, and for about two months thereafter there was no visible difference in their appearance; about that period, however, he observed that many of the plants in the drill that had been sown without being washed were of a darker color than the others; these, when narrowly examined, were of a dirtygreen. The plants in the drill that had been washed were all of one color, and seemingly healthy; as the season advanced, the difference in color became more striking, and continued to increase till the grain was fairly out of the blade: about this time many of the dirty-green ears began to exhibit symptoms of decay. As soon as the ear was fairly shot out, the whole of those in the unwashed drill, that had the dirty-green appearance above described, were found to contain nothing but smut; and these smutted ears were in the proportion of more than six to one of the healthy ones; while, on the contrary, the drill in which the washed grains had been sown, and which consisted of several hundred grains, had hardly a smutted or unhealthy ear in it. The same experiment was repeated the following season, and with nearly the same result. Satisfied with knowing that complete washing would be found a remedy for the disease, he made no farther enquiry upon the subject till last autumn, when he was employed in making observations upon the blight, in the course of which he met with a good deal of smut in many fields; and, being at the time possessed of some excellent glasses, he carefully examined some of the smutted plants. This at first was done more as a matter of amusement than from any expectation of discovering any thing that might contribute to throw light upon the subject. Upon a near inspection with the glass, he found that the dirty-green color of the blades of the smutted ears was owing to a number of spots infinitely small, and bearing a near resemblance to those upon blighted ears: his observations were continued throughout the whole period of the ripening, in the course of which he made no additional discovery, except observing that the leaves and stalks of the smutted ears decayed sooner than such as were healthy. About the end of autumn, however, having one day brought home some smutted ears of rather an unusual appearance, he examined them very narrowly, and observed that the balls were perforated in many places with small round holes, a thing he had not be fore observed in any that he had met with this he ascribed to vermin; and upon sticking one of the grains upon a pin, and placing it under the glass in a very bright sun, he could distinctly observe several small transparent specks upon the beard, or downy part of it. He examined several more, and met with exactly the same appearance; but, upon being called hastily away upon business, he was under the necessity of leaving them upon the table, without being able to ascertain whether the objects he had seen were eggs or insects. In the evening, when he came home, he resumed the investigation by candlelight; in the course of which, as he was under the necessity of holding them very near the candle, the heat soon relieved him from his embarrassment, by putting them in motion, and he

then discovered that the specks above-mentioned were real insects, resembling wood-lice in shape. Next day he repeated the same trials by sunlight with new smut-balls, and discovered the same appearances, but without being able to make any of the insects stir. Disappointed and vexed at not being able to see them in motion with the sun-light, and recollecting the heat of the candle, he threw the concentrated rays of the sun upon them with a burning-glass, which completely answered his purpose of putting them in motion, and showing them in every different point of view. To describe minutely an insect so small as not to be distinguishable by the naked eye, would, he thinks, be no easy matter; it is sufficient to say that its general appearance is very similar to the wood-louse, though infinitely smaller. As soon as he had clearly ascertained the existence of this insect, his mind was perfectly at ease with regard to the cause of the distemper; but though he could very readily conceive that vermin, in the early stages of the growth of a plant, might so injure the stamina as to render it unfit to produce any thing but smut, he could not so well understand how it was possible for the mere touch of the black earth contained in the smut-balls to produce the same effect. It is well known that, in the animal body, certain infections are communicated merely by the contact of the sound and unsound parts; but that in every instance where this happens the injury can be distinctly traced to an absorption of the virulent matter, by the vessels of the healthy subject.

We are now, he thinks, so well acquainted with vegetation as to know that plants have a circulating system as well as animals; and that, while they are in a growing state, poison as well as nourishment may enter their vessels, and do infinite mischief. If this reasoning is sanctioned by experience, and there can be no doubt of it, and if there is the slightest analogy between animal and vegetable life, it will at once appear, that no bad effect could possibly arise from smutted and healthy ears coming in contact, either in the stack or the barn, as at that time they are in a state of rest, and no circulation going on. It may be argued, in answer to this, that while the plants are green, the shaking of the wind may bring the smutted and the healthy ears into contact, and that the acrimony of the smut may corrode and destroy the healthy wheat, so as to produce the disease. This idea he knows is entertained by many very good farmers it is, however, clearly disproved by the experiment above recited, by which it appears that a simple washing in water, provided it is properly performed, is a very effectual cure for the distemper: common sense will inform us that had the stamina, or germ of the grains so washed, been injured by any thing of a corrosive nature, even in the slightest degree, no ablution whatever could possibly have repaired the mischief. And the same reasoning, he supposes, applies with equal justice to the other causes assigned, with the single exception of insects; for, if either the grain was naturally weak, or had been sprung in harvest, or was deficient in its male organs, as is ridiculously supposed, nothing

but the highest degree of weakness and credulity could make any person believe that either the washing with water, or indeed any other preparation, could cure such defects.

It is, therefore, his opinion, that the smut is occasioned by the small insect above described, as seen by the glass in the downy part of the grain; and that when the balls are either broken in the operation of thrashing, or come in contact with clean healthy grains, the insects leave the smutted grains, and, adhering to such as are healthy, are sown with them, and wound the tender stem in such a manner as to render the plant incapable of producing any thing but smut. It is not an easy matter to account for the manner in which this takes place; but a little attention to the circumstances he is now to mention will perhaps throw some light upon it. It is known that plants of very opposite natures and qualities will grow and produce abundantly upon the same soil, where the nourishment is seemingly the same. This effect is also known to be owing to the structure of their vessels, by the action of which the juices that circulate through them are differently prepared in every different plant. From this striking difference, owing confessedly to organisation, is it not, he asks, presumeable that the smut in wheat is produced by the insects wounding the vessels of the plant in such a manner as to render them incapable of taking up any other principle from the soil, but the smut contained in the balls, which, upon examination, seems to have no quality different from the finest vegetable earth? This opinion, he thinks, is strongly supported from the circumstance of certain pickles being found a cure for the malady. The effect of these pickles is, however, completely misunderstood; for in place of supposing, as is erroneously done, that they operate by strengthening the grain, and thereby removing that debility which has been long considered the cause of smut, their benefit

depends upon the powers they possess of destroying the insects above described: but to show the absurdity of the commonly received opinion in a more striking point of view, it is only necessary, he adds, to state, that many of these preparations, which are supposed to be so friendly to vegetation, are in fact inimical to it, unless they are used with the utmost caution; even stale urine, which has long been considered as a safe and innocent remedy, is, under certain circumstances, highly pernicious. After he had discovered the insect, he made trial of all the substances commonly used, and found all of them, when properly applied, destructive to it. Is it not, therefore, he contends, more agreeable to plain common sense to suppose that the virtue of these preparations consists more in the power they have of destroying vermin, than in any strengthening quality they possess?

The general practice of farmers has been that of preparing their seed by the means of some sort of washing or brining. The following is a table view of the results of trials made with different steeps, in order to ascertain their utility as well as in promoting the growth of the grain, as given by Mr. Bevan, in the ninth volume of the Agricultural Magazine. It contains twelve samples of smutty wheat, and the same number of sound good wheat, steeped in twelve different solutions of the most common acids and alkalies, and salts, most readily procured. The wheat was sown at Leighton, Bedfordshire, on a sandy soil. The solutions were all made cold, and the samples continued about twentyfour hours in steep. The columns marked A are the results from the good wheat, and those marked B are from the smutty samples. It may be observed that neither of the samples steeped in the solutions of nitric acid came up, excepting a single corn in the good sample, and which produced above 1200 corns from it.

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large tub; and, after the ebullition is over, as much cold water as there was hot, and stirs it all strongly together, in order to dissolve and thoroughly mix the lime. The quantity of wheat intended to be sowed is sprinkled with this ley, and then well stirred with a shovel, and laid in as high a heap as possible. It is best, he supposes, to keep the grain for a week after this preparation, turning it every day; for otherwise it would heat so as to destroy the germ. By these means he has not had any smut, when the fields around him have been infected with that distemper. And Mr. Donat, near Rochelle, has used the following with success: take quick-lime and pigeons'-dung, of each twenty-five pounds, forty pounds of wood-ashes, and twenty-five pounds of sea-salt, or salt-petre. Put all these into a tub, large enough to hold half a hogshead of common water, which should be added to them. Stir them all well with a stick, till the lime is quite dissolved. This ley will keep some time without spoiling. It must be stirred just before the corn is steeped in it. The grain is then put into a basket, and plunged into the ley, where it remains till it has thoroughly imbibed it; after which it is taken out, and laid in a heap till it is quite drained of all its moisture: or, which is a still better way, take a mashing-tub, fill it with grain to within four inches of the brim, and then pour in the ley well stirred before-hand. When the tub is full, let the ley run out at the bottom into some other vessel, in order to use it again for more corn. Let the grain be then taken out and laid in a heap to drain; and continue in this manner to steep all the seed-corn. The wheat, thus prepared, may be sowed the next day, and must not be kept above five or six days, for fear of its heating. This quantity of ley will serve to prepare more than twenty bushels of wheat. Mr. Tull has also long since observed that brining and changing the seed are the general remedies for smut.

An intelligent writer, in the eleventh volume of the Agricultural Magazine, says that he can truly state that, in the course of long and extensive practice, he has never discovered the produce of any good and properly prepared seedwheat smutted, while that of his unprepared escaped. On the contrary, whenever he has sown any in the latter state, he has always observed much smut in the crops raised from it; and refers his readers to the following account of an accurate comparative statement. On the 15th of March last he sowed two contiguous ridges (in the middle of a very large field), equal in soil, condition, and exposure, with wheat of the same variety, raised on the same kind of soil, in precisely the same mode of management, and thoroughly mixed. The seed contained a very small quantity of smut, perhaps one black ball to a quart; but the other grains were not at all discolored. The ridges were set out in an east and west direction, each eighty yards long and nine broad. On the west half of the northern ridge he sowed the seed without any preparation whatever; and on the east, after being well washed in clean river water. On the west half of the other ridge the wheat was sown after

having been wet with old chamber-ley; and on the east half, after being prepared (provincially pickled) in the usual manner, with old chamberley and lime in fine powder. All the land was ploughed and sown broad-cast on the same day, without any variation of weather, and equally well harrowed. We had a calm, dry, and tolerably warm blooming season. Some time after the ears were out he examined the crop very minutely. That after the unprepared seed, the washed seed, and the wheat wet with chamber-ley, contained a great, and that from the seed which received the chamber-ley and lime, a very small quantity of smut. The straw of this appeared as good as that of the sound wheat. Upon every piece of ground he found ears partly smutted and partly sound. In part of these ears he found some rows of grain containing sound wheat near the middle of the row, and smut both above and below it. With a view of finding the proportion (at harvest) with some degree of precision, he took four sheaves from the middle of the crop raised from the pickled seed, mixed them thoroughly, reduced them to an equal size, viz. to the circumference of twenty-four, inches, and then carefully picked out and counted the number of smutted ears they contained. He pursued precisely the same mode with the crops upon the other pieces of ground, and the results were as under:

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It is supposed that it is stated, in some of our agricultural publications, that one of the strong acids, much diluted with water, has been successfully used in preparing seed-wheat, with a view of preventing smut; a disease which has been improperly confounded with blight or mildew. The latter remedy he never tried; he has, however, on several occasions, used sea-water (so strongly impregnated with salt that an egg would swim on it) and lime, and also the drainings of fold-yards and lime, and is of opinion that these mixtures are not nearly so efficacious as the latter article and strong chamber-ley. The best mode of preparation is, he thinks, to immerse the wheat in the chamber-ley, stirring it well (about five or ten minutes), and skimming off the light grains, &c. The chamber-ley should be let out by a tap, and the wheat spread on a floor, and so well mixed with the lime that every grain may receive a part of it. If this mode be carefully practised, with seed free from smut, he can, from experience, assure the husbandman that he will never suffer, in any considerable degree, from that disease. As the lime and chimber-ley will soon destroy the vegetative principle of the grain, if it be suffered to remain in a heap, or in bags, it should be committed to the ground within six or eight hours after it has been thus prepared. He has sometimes known

it considerably injured after being kept twentyfour hours thinly spread out upon a well aired floor. And as, when the seed is in a very moist state, it will not pass regularly through the drillmachine, it is necessary on that account to have it drier in the drill than the broad-cast husbandry. When the wheat used in the foregoing experiment was prepared, a proper vessel was not at hand, and therefore the chamber-ley was sprinkled upon it. This, however, is not a good method, for we lose the chamber-ley, and the advantage of skimming off the light grains, black balls, &c.; and, notwithstanding frequent turnings, it sometimes happens that all the grains do not receive a sufficient quantity of the liquid. A proper vessel should therefore be constantly had recourse to for this purpose.

On the supposition of this diseased state of grain being produced by an insect, the following method of kiln-drying has been proposed in the third volume of the Farmer's Magazine. Let the wheat be laid upon the kiln about three or four inches thick, the kiln being heated middlingly strong with blind coal; the wheat to continue on the kiln for twenty-four hours, but turned frequently. After taking it off the kiln, it must be allowed twenty-four hours to cool, during which time it must be frequently turned, and then put through the fanners once or twice. After the wheat has lain a few hours on the kiln, and the fire begins to have effect, a great number of very small worms, formerly undiscovered by the eye, appear on the top of the grain, and are soon destroyed by the heat. These come from blacked wheat or other corns that could not be suspected to be indifferent; or may lie in, or on good wheat, which worms continuing (when not thus killed) might consume the corn after it is thrown into the earth, thereby checking the growth entirely, or preventing it from having the strength it otherwise would have, to bring forth a strong productive stalk. It is added that the first farmer in Clackmannanshire who tried the kiln-drying of wheat, instead of pickling it, learnt it about twenty-five years ago (and he has continued the practice ever since) from an Irishman, who had been appointed by the Board of Trustees to stamp the linens, &c., manufactured in the village of Alva, who asserted that it was practised in his part of Ireland; but, at this distance of time, the farmer has forgotten what part of Ireland the man said he came from.

With the view of cleaning smutty grain, various methods have been proposed; as by agitating it with different substances, as sand, and lime made from stone, or white or gray chalk, which, when used, should be finely sifted, and then well blended with the wheat in proportion to the state of the smut, as from one to two bushels for a load of five quarters, which should then be passed through a machine one or more times, according to the purpose for which the wheat is intended. And, for common purposes, it is supposed that the smut in wheat may be removed by a machine with brushes, invented for the purpose; but that, if it be for seed, it should be put in a trough, or wicker receiver, under the spout of a pump, or the fall of a stream, and be briskly stirred about, until the injurious

substance floats away, or can be skimmed off from the surface. When intended for flour, after this washing, it must be dried on a malt-kiln for the space of eighteen hours, but heated so as not to exceed 850 of Fahrenheit's thermometer. There is a representation of a machine contrived for this use in the Corrected Agricultural Report of Berkshire.

SMUT, or Blacks, in oats, is a vegetable disease that often occurs or takes place in crops of this kind, in much the same manner as that of smut in wheat. It sometimes affects the whole of the ear of the grain, being met with in different stages of its progress in the standing crops, as well as at the time of thrashing out the corn, as in those of a soft unctuous state, in the state of a ball, and in a powdery state, or that of a fine dust, which disperses itself in thrashing, and fixes upon different parts of the faces of the men who thrash, rendering them quite black. Others, probably without sufficient observation or knowledge of the fact, suppose it to be a plant growing separately among the oats. It is an affection of this sort which happens frequently on the eastern side of the county of Lancaster and in the Isle of Man.

No effectual method of preventing it has yet been discovered, but it is found to be much lessened by the good cultivation and management of the land on which this crop is grown. The oat crops, where it exists to any considerable extent, are much less productive than in other circumstances; but the diseased substance is generally light in its nature, so that it is readily blown away in dressing or cleaning.

SMYRNA, a large commercial city of Asia Minor, situated at the head of a long and winding gulf of the Grecian archipelago. Smyrna claims, on pretty strong grounds, to be the birthplace of Homer, and is said originally to have been a colony from Ephesus, that soon attained to such a degree of prosperity as to be received as the thirteenth city of Ionia. The original city, however, was destroyed by the Lydians; and the population were dispersed in the neighbouring villages, till Antigonus and Lysimachus rebuilt it on a different spot. The streets were now beautifully laid out, paved, and adorned with porticos; and the city contained a gymnasium, a library, and a structure called the Homerium, consisting of a temple, statue, and portico, dedicated to Homer.

Smyrna has ever since continued a flourishing place, and in modern times has been considered the emporium of the Levant. The town is at present about four miles in circuit, extending about a mile along the water, in approaching from which it makes a fine appearance. The bay is land-locked, so that nothing is seen from the town but the projecting points. The streets, however, are narrow, dirty, and ill paved; and the bazaars, though well provided with goods, are by no means respectable structures. There are two very fine caravanseras enclosing square courts, and covered with cupolas; the besesteins, or shops, also are here arched over and very fine. At the east end of the city is a large hill, about three-quarters of a mile in circumference, on which was the castle constructed by the Genoese.

Along its circuit may be traced the remains of a
very thick and strong wall, and corresponding
in its dimensions with another, which appears
to have surrounded the city. Of the sumptuous
ancient edifices scarcely any remains can be
traced. Only the foundations can be seen of the
splendid theatre built on the slope of the hill,
the site of which is now covered with houses;
and on a gateway belonging to the castle is a
colossal statue of very fine workmanship, though
much mutilated, which has been supposed to be
that of the Amazon Smyrna.
Marks of a very
extensive aqueduct may also be traced, though a
late traveller doubts if it be of high antiquity.
Behind the city is an extensive and most luxu-
riant plain, watered by the river Meles, which is
here from fifty to 100 yards broad, but contains
little water. The chief inconvenience of Smyrna
is its being extremely liable to earthquakes,
which from time to time cause great alarm. A
heavier calamity is the plague, which, in 1814,
carried off from 50,000 to 60,000 souls. The
inhabitants are usually reckoned at 100,000,
of whom Mr. Turner supposes the Turks to
amount to between 50,000 and 60,000, the Greeks
to 30,000, the Armenians to 8000, and the Franks,
or Europeans, to 2000 or 3000. The export
trade consists of Turkey carpets, raw silk, un-
wrought cotton, and the beautiful goats' hair, or
mohair, of Angora. It sends out also a consi-
derable quantity of raisins, muscadine wine, and
a variety of drugs, as rhubarb, amber, musk,
lapis lazuli, and gums; also a number of pearls,
diamonds, and other precious stones. The im-
ports are lead, tin, glass, woollen cloths, and
wrought silks.

SMYRNIUM, Alexanders, a genus of the
digynia order, and pentandria class of plants;
natural order forty-fifth, umbellatæ. The fruit
is oblong and striated; the petals have a sharp
point, and are keel-shaped. There are five
species:-1. S. Ægyptiacum, the Egyptian Alex-
anders, a native of Egypt. 2. S. aureum, the
golden Alexanders, a native of North America.
3. S. integerrimum, the complete Alexanders. 4.
S. olusatrum, common Alexanders, a native of
Britain; the leaves of which are cauline, ternate,
petiolated, and serrated. It grows on the sea
coast at Dunglas on the borders of Berwickshire,
North Britain. Since the introduction of celery
into the garden the Alexanders is almost forgotten.
It was formerly cultivated for salading, and the
young shoots or stalks blanched were eaten either
raw or stewed. The leaves too were boiled in
broths and soups.
It is a warm comfortable
plant to a cold weak stomach, and was in much
esteem among the monks, as may be inferred by
its still being found in great plenty by old abbey
walls. 5. S. perfoliatum, the perfoliate Alexan-
ders, a native of Candia in Italy.

SMYTH (Robert), an indefatigable English antiquary, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, under Dr. Newcombe the master of it. He made large collections for a History of the Sheriffs of England; but when ready for the press it was unfortunately lost. He assisted Mr. Carter, schoolmaster at Cambridge, in his History of that city and university.

SNACK, n. s. From snatch. A share; a part taken by compact.

If the master gets the better on't, they come in for their snack. L'Estrange.

For four times talking, if one piece thou take,
That must be cantled, and the judge go snack.
Dryden.

At last he whispers, 'Do, and we go snacks.' Pope.
All my domurs but double his attacks;

SNAFFLE, n. s. & v. a. Belg. snavel, the nose. A bridle which crosses the nose: to bridle; hold in a bridle; manage.

The third o' the' world is yours, which with a You may pace easy; but not such a wife. snuffle

Shakspeare.

Sooth him with praise ;
This, from his weaning, let him well be taught,
And then betimes in a soft snaffle wrought.

SNAG, n. s.
SNAG GED adj.
SNAG'GY adj.
corresponding.

Dryden's Georgicks.

From Dan. knag, a knot, probably. A jag, or sharp protuberance: the adjectives

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