Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/388

 RUS

tut it is long and continual rains that chill the bloflbms, and in this manner prevent their fertility : this, however, does not often happen to us ; thefe rains are not common at this feafon of the year -, and if they were, this country lying much of it open, the winds diflodge thefe drops of •water from the ears, and prevent the mifchief they would do there.

Lammas wheat does not retain thefe drops fo long as the bearded or cone wheat ; and, in confequence of this, in the terrible blight in England in the year 1725, the bearded wheat received infinitely greater mifchief than the lammas wheat.

The fecond kind of blight from light ears, is, that which is more frequent, and more general with us ; this brings the greateft fcarcity of wheat, and the caufe of this is plainly want of nourifhment of the grain, by whatever means that want is occafioned. Several accidents kill the plants, or injure their health, and in that cafe the grains are not filled : lightning does great mifchief to the farmer in this kind, as is plain by the feveral black fpots and patches in fields of corn, in years, when there has been more lightning than ufual. This is a difafter thatmuft be quietly fuffcred, fince it can be neither prevented nor remedied ; but the other caufes of blights, which are moft genera!, and do the moft damage, may be prevented in fome meafure at leaft. One great and common caufe of the blight is, the lodging or falling of corn ; in this cafe the ftalks are broken near the ear, and the veflels are hurt which fhould carry up the nou rifhment to the ear. In this cafe, there can juft juices enough pafs for the keeping the plant alive, and bringing it to its full height, but it is languid all the time, and the grains can never be filled with flour. The earlier in the fea- fon this lodging of the ftalks happens, the thinner and poorer the ears will be : hence it happens, that when dung and tillage have brought a wheat land into fo good a Itate, that in April and May it feems to promife the farmer five or fix quarters of wheat, it fhall be all deftroyed by falling in June, and fcarce yield him five bufhels, and this fo thin and lank, that the expences of reaping and thrafhing are more than its value. The wind is generally accufed of the throwing down thefe ftalks, but this does not feem to be truly the cafe ; the wind may prefs upon the plants ; but the caufe of their giving way to it is a weaknefs in their ftalks, and this feems owing either to the want of nourifhment, or the want of air, or of the fun's rays, and perhaps to the want of all three together. A rich acre will maintain a crop of five quarters ftanding. while a poor acre will not be able to fupport fuch a crop, as •would have yielded only about three quarters had it flood. This is a proof of want of due nourifhment being one great caufe of the falling. Air is neceflary to the nourifhment of all plants, wheat in particular requires a very free air. It fucceeds beft in open hilly places where the wind comes freely to it, and fbakes off the drops of water from the leaves, as well as their own recrements ; and it is plain, that a great quantity of the fun's rays is neceflary to keep wheat ftrong; becaufe in the hotter countries it is not fub ject to fall as it is with us, and in other northern countries. There is another caufe of the blight-, which is the wheat's coming too late into bloflbm. It fhould bloflbm in the be- ginning of June, becaufe there is not otherwife time during the hot weather for it to pais through the different ftage. the perfection of the grain. The caufes of the blight being thus known, the cure or pre- vention may be attempted by the farmer, on much more ra- tional grounds than it was among the antients. It is ad- vantageous to haftcn as much as poflible the time of bloflbm' ing of the corn, and to protract as long as we can the ripen- ing of the grain, that it may have diffident time to fill and fwell. Theearlieft fown wheat is generally obferved to ef- cape the blight beft, and this is owing to its coming fooneft into bloflbm. The antients ufed to let their fheep feed upon the corn while young in the blade, by way of preventing it from lodging or falling afterwards : fome of our own farmers ufe this method alfo; and, it is true, that the corn is pre- vented from falling by this ; but the remedy is as bad as the difeafe, for the ftalks are not made very ftrong by this prac- tice, but the ears lighter. They therefore do not weigh down and lodge the ftalks indeed, but they are in fome fort blighted by this means, and the difeafe is caufed by the means ufed to prevent it. This feeding the wheat with fheep retards the time of its bloflbming, and the only ad- vantage of early fowing is thus taken away by it : what grows after the eating of the fheep is a fort of latter crop, and is always weaker and later than the firft. The longer the corn remains on the ground the more nourifhment it requires from it ; and in this unnatural remaining on the land, there is no proper fupply provided. The general remedy for all the cafes of the blight is the mo- dern method of horfehoing hufbandry. In this the hoe ftirs up the ground as often as the farmer pleafes, and every fuch ftirring gives new life and nourifhment to the plant : this way a fupply of food for the ear may be given, whenever it is neceflary, and the wide intervals left for the hoe in the drilling the wheat ; for this fort of hufbandry gives a free paflage for the fun and air to all the plants.

RUT

The moft general blight of all that happen in thefe cold countries is caufed by infects, which fome think are brought in the air by an eaft wind, accompanied by moifture, a lit- tle before the grain is filling with that milky juice which hardens into flour. Thefe infects depofite their eggs within the outer fkin or rind of the ftalks ; and when the young ones are hatched they feed on the parenchyma, and eat off many of the veflels v/hich fhould convey this juice j then the ear is deprived of it, and muft in confequence be thin and poor, in proportion to the number of the veflels eaten, and as the infects happen to come earlier or later ; for fometimes they come fo late, that the grains are fufficiently filled with this milky juice before they have any power to hurt the vef- fels.

In this cafe, though the ftraw, when examined by the micro- fcope, appears to have its veflels eaten and torn, and to be full of black fpecks, which are caufed by the fame infects, yet the grain is plump and full. This is one of the many cafes in which the early fown wheat efcapes the blight, it has been feen, that of the crop of wheat, in the fame field, fome of which has been fown earlier and fome later, though there has been no other difference in the whole, vet the early fown wheat has been full eared, and the late fown has been light eared ; and both have had their ftalks equally eaten and fpotted by the infects.

A proof that thefe mifchievous infects are brought by the caft wind, is, that the corn on the eaft fide of hedges is often found blighted, and deftroyed by them, while that on the weft fide of the fame hedge is unhurt. Some fuppofe they are bred in the earth, and crawl up the ftalks, becaufe fome whole fields are fubject to them, and others efcape them wholly ; but this is more probably owing to the difference of the fituation of thefe fields, as they are more or lefs expofed to the eaft. Some wheat is more liable to be hurt by this inCt&-blight than another, and the beft remedy in this evil is to plant fields which are moft expofed to thefe blights, with fuch wheat as is leaft fubject to be injured by them. The white cone, or bearded wheat, which has its ftalk or ftraw like a rufh, not hollow, but full of pith, except near the lower part, where it is very thick and ftrong, is very proper on thisoccafkm; it is probable, that this plant' has fap veflels, that lie deeper, and fo are not to be deftroyed like thofe of common wheat ; the ftalks of this are often found fpotted with black, which fhews that the infects have been there, and yet the ears are found full, and the grains plump in them.

There is another kind of blight, called by the farmers moor leer, this is occafioned by the earth's falling away from the roots of the wheat, and is cured by throwing up fmall fur- rows againft the rows in the drilling method. The horfe- hoing hufbandry is beft of all others calculated to prevent blights, and to cure them when they happen ; but as there are fome years when all wheat is blighted, even at thefe times, the horfehoing hufbandry has an advantage ; for when the ftalks fall they never He absolutely on the ground in this cafe, but the air has room to play between them ; but the common fown wheat has not this advantage. The ears in the blighted wheat of the drilled kind are not fo light nor poor as in others, but make the farmer fome amends in the corn, though greatly lefs than in the common produce. Full's Horfehoing Hufbandry.

Corn is always more fubject to blights after a wet fummer than at any other feafon ; the reafon feems, that the roots being continually drenched with water, the plant runs up to ftalk, and has very little ear, and the corn in the ear is never large or full.

It is obferved, that when the mildews rife or blights fall, they generally infeft only one kind of grain, fometimes wheat, fometimes oats, and fometimes barley only j and the fame fort of obfervation holds good in regard to fruit, fometimes only apples are blighted, fometimes only pears, fometimes cherries, and fo on. Mot-toner's Hufbandry. T. 1. p. 305. See the article Blight.

RUSTICULA, in zoology, a name by which Aldrovand and fome other authors have called the godwit, more commonly known by the name agoeephalus. Aldrovand. de Avib. See the article /Egocephalus.

Rusticula brafilienfis, in zoology, the name given by Mr. Ray, and fome others, to the guarauna, a water bird of the Brafils, of the fize of our fnipe. See Guarauna.

RUT (Cycl.) — Rut of tbcfea, is where it dafhes againft any thing.

RUTA, rue, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, ufually confifting of four hollowed petals, difpofed in a circular form. From the cup of the flower there arifes a pifHl, which afterwards becomes a roundifh fruit, approaching to a fquare form, and compofed of four capfules affixed to an axis, and ufually containing angular or kidney fhaped feeds.

The fbecies of rue enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. r. The common broad leaved garden rue. 2. The more fhrubby broad leaved garden rue. 3. The narrower or fmaller leaved garden rut. 4. The larger wild rue. 5. The 2 fmaller