is the Smut, which converts the farinaceous parts of the grain to a black powder resembling smut:  a cirumstance too well known to many farmers.  Those who wish to consult the remedies recommended against this, may refer to The Annals of Agriculture, and most other books on the subject.  It is usual with farmers to mix the Wheat with stale urine or brine, and to dry it by sifting it with slaked lime, which has the effect of causing it to vegetate quickly, and to prevent the attacks of many insects when the seed is first put into the ground.  This is considered as productive of great benefit to the crop; but it is also to be remarked, that it is almost the only grain that is ever prepared with this mixture, although it might be applied with equal propriety to all others.  See article Pisum sativum.

91.  Triticum turgidum.  Cone wheat.—­This a fine grain, and cultivated much in the strong land in the Vale of Evesham, where it is found to answer better than any other sorts.  It is distinguished by the square and thick spike, and having a very long arista or beard.

The following sorts of Wheat are mentioned as being in cultivation.  But I have not seen them, neither do I think any of them equal to the sorts enumerated above: 

Triticum nigrum.  Black-grained wheat.  Triticum polonicum.  Polish wheat.  Triticum monococcon.  One-grained wheat.  Triticum Spelta.  Spelt wheat.

Besides the use of Wheat for bread and other domestic purposes, large quantities are every season consumed in making starch, which is the pure fecula of the grain obtained by steeping it in water and beating it in coarse hempen bags, by which means the fecula is thus caused to exude and diffuse through the water.  This, from being mixed with the saccharine matter of the grain, soon runs into the acetous fermentation, and the weak acid thus formed by digesting on the fecula renders it white.  After setting, the precipitate is washed several times, and put by in square cakes and dried on kilns.  These in drying part into flakes, which gives the form to the starch of the shops.

Starch is soluble in hot water, and becomes of the nature of gum.  It is however insoluble in cold water, and on this account when pulverized it makes most excellent hair-powder.

92.  Vicia Faba.  The bean.—­Several kinds of Beans are cultivated by farmers.  The principal are the Horse-Bean or Tick-Bean; the Early Mazagan; and the Long-pods.  Beans grow best in stiff clayey soils, and in such they are the most convenient crop.  The season for planting is either the winter or spring month, as the weather affords opportunity.  They are either drilled, broad-cast sown, or put in by the dibble, which is considered not only the most eligible mode but in ge-neral affording the best crops.  The seed is from one to three bushels per acre.