Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-08-12
Che farmer.
The Nudge, Fly, WeeVil and Rust.

The Nudge, Fly, Weeyil and Rust.
Continued wheat cropping until the slick
is exhausted will produce soft, spongy stalks,
that will partly invite the attack of fly and
rust. 1t is far more liable to rust and smut
and fly, in some soils than in others As the
slkales and other fertalizing elements become
exhausted, its crops of wheat not only become
smaller, but the plants fail in constitutional
vigor, and are more liable to diseases, and to
the attacks of parasitic plants and destructive
insects Defects in soil, and improper nutri-
ton, add to these disastrous results Soils
may have all the material necessary to pro-
duce large crop of wheat, but for want of
soluble silica to give it hard glossy stem, it
will be unable to withstand wet lodge down,
rust, and give harbor to the nudge; and in
September and May to the fly. From one
hundred TIC one hundred and fifty pounds of
soluble silica are required to glaze the stalks
and kernels of an acre OF wheat, and three
fourths of it is required in the last sixty days
of maturing. This is the time the stalk ac-
quires its solidity and strength But all the
sand in the world will do no good, unless So
luble Or liquid, so that the plant can draw up
and use it. All alkaline minerals, as potash,
soda, lime, magnesia and ammonia, hasten
the solution of the insoluble compounds of
silica in the soil Without some alkaline
mineral crop of wheat may be worthless
for want of silica, although the crop grew in
heap of sand. Until it is dissolved and
made liquid, it is as foolish to expect wheat
to use it, as it is to offer cake of ice to
horse and tell him to drink. In each case
the appropriate substance is present, but not
in condition to be used,
The first great cause Of nudge, fly weevil,
and rust, is soil exhausted by wheat crop
ping, so that there is not silica sufficient to
harden the stem and seed. The remedy, if
there is sand or silica in the earth, alkaline
minerals, to render the sand soluble, so that
the sand can be drawn up in the pores of the
plant
As the fly Operates in September, one
remedy is to sow so late that the fly will be
gone before the wheat comes up. As this
prevents the fly from depositing its egg in the
fall, the crop will be free from them in the
spring. If wheat is sown from the LIST to the
10th of October, there is little danger from
the fly; but it makes the growth so late that
it is apt to wintor-kill, and be subject to rust.
All varieties of wheat, if sown early, are la
bic to injury from the fly; and if, to avoid
this evil, sowing be delayed till late, the plants
do not get sufficient root to stand the heaving
of the frosts, and winter-kils; and not be
glazed early enough to avoid the rust sea-
son, in June, they are subject to that evil, as
well as the nudge As, in sowing early to
avoid the rust the wheat is liable to fly, and
in sowing late to avoid the fly we subject it
to rust, the great object should be to adopt
some measure whereby we may avoid both.
As unsound and unhealthy plants are more
subject to fly and rust than are healthy ones,
the first object should beto get healthy plants.
To insure healthy plants, We must have sound
and healthy seed. Kernels broken in thresh-
ing, stung by the weeviI, Elected by the rust
OF dwarfed, or shriveled by the injury of the
fly to the stalk, should never be sown.
We should have good land, possessing nat
urally or supplied artifcially with all the
constituents of the wheat CROP
To insure such seed it should be put in
water before it is sown, and what floats on
the top is imperfect, and should be skinned
off, If the kernel is stung shriveled, or de-
fectiye, the water ordeal will show it. What
sink in the water IL sound. Ii may, how
ever have the spores Of smut or rust on it
thai will propagate and produce crop Of
that curse. To prevent that, the seed that
sinks to the bottom should be stepped in lime
water, or sulphato of soda, or brine, then
rolled in plaster: or if soaked in sulphate of
sodQ CT brine, roll it in lime recently Stacked
putting peck of recently Stacked lime to
each bushel of wheat and shovel it over till
the seed is completely covered. 1t should be
soaked from four to six hours. This will
kill the spores of the rust or smut and pro-
duce healthy seed--which with good land
and good cultivation, will insure health Y
plants.
Another remedy is to get variety of wheat
that can be sown so late as to avoid the fly
in September, and that would ripen so early
as Ia avoid the II st in June.
The Mediterranean is some ten days earlier
than any other variety, which usually saves
it from the rust. 1t will also bear TO b.
sown later than any other variety.