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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    others, or of one of them alone ; the third is scarcely pro¬ bable, while the rest have a character of reality. The opinion which attributes the spur to the mouldiness of the seed in the ground, is supported by an instance that occurred in 1784, when the rye that was sown in a lig^ht soil got mouldy before it germinated. Hence, in that year, the crop abounded in spurred plants. The observations of Messrs. Gaspard Bauhin, and M. Dodart, appear to con¬ firm this last opinion. They both assert that the spur is very general, when heavy rains are succeeded by hot weather. M. Tessier remarked that the most rainy years were the most productive of this disease; that the soils on which most spurred rye grew, were most moist; that high grounds were nearly free from them, unless when the furrows pre vented the water from running freely off, while the lower parts of the same field produced more than the upper parts, 8tc. This disease is not contagious, nor is it propagated year after year. Nevertheless the effects it produces on persons who eat bread made from the rye that is infected by it, are sometimes terrible. It is said to be a real poison, which almost always occasions death, after causing convulsions, heaviness, giddiness, and most acute pains in the limbs. It generally affects the legs, feet, arms, and hands, with a disease called the dry grangrene, insomuch that they dry up and fall off. Men have been seen attacked with this disease, who, though with only the head and body remain¬ ing, have nevertheless lived several days in this deplorable state! M. de Salene, a physician of Orleans, asserts in an essay published in 1748, that out of an hundred patients four only escaped. Spurred rye is equally dangerous to animals. Some¬ times they have been cured by means of milk* The same