Hints regarding the agricultural state of the Netherlands, compared with that of Great Britain : and some obsevations on the means of diminishing the expense of growing corn; of preventing the mildew in wheat, the rot in sheep, and the introduction of other improvements into British agriculture / [Sir John Sinclair].

  • Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints regarding the agricultural state of the Netherlands, compared with that of Great Britain : and some obsevations on the means of diminishing the expense of growing corn; of preventing the mildew in wheat, the rot in sheep, and the introduction of other improvements into British agriculture / [Sir John Sinclair]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    put several hundred of the seeds of smut into water which had been distilled in an alembic of copper* to his great astonishment* he observed that these seeds either did not vegetate at all* or very imperfectly* whilst other seeds* put in ordinary water* germinated as usual. Thence he directed his researches to copper and copperas salts* and he obtained from thence the happiest and most satisfac~ lory results. In order to ascertain the extent of the influence of the copper upon the germination and vegetation of smut* he made use of a plate of this metal* entirely freed from ver¬ digris* containing a surface of two square inches. He found* that after the plate had remained sixty or sixty-two hours in the water* the seeds which he afterwards placed upon it* either did not come up at all* or came up very ill* and produced only deformed stems on the surface of the water; at the bottom he perceived no symptom of vegeta¬ tion. But as such a process would be very inconvenient in practice* he directed his attention to the effect of salts from copper* and particularly to the sulfate of copper* or blue vitriol* as being the most easily procured. The result of these experiments is ; That smut does not germinate at all in common water* in which there has been dissolved a 280,000th part of its weight of sulfate of copper, the temperature being five or six degrees. That the presence of this salt* in the propor¬ tion of a 600*0G0th* or even a ]*Q0Q*0Q0th part, retards it perceptibly. And lastly* that a solution of this sulfate in water* in the proportion of a 10*0Q0thpart of its weight, is sufficient to take from smut the power of germinating* when steeped in it only for an hour or two* though washed immediately afterwards. But it was not enough to observe the effects of copper and the sulfate of that metal upon the germination of smut* placed in water* or upon moist substances ; it was also