SMUT, in husbandry, a disease in corn, when the grains, instead of being filled with flour, are full of a sinking black powder.
As to the cause of this distemperature, some have attributed it to excessive rankness, or fatness of the soil; to the manuring the land with rotten vegetables; and to the sowing smutty feed. Mr Bradley thinks it is owing to the same cause with a blight, viz. to multitudes of insects. But Mr Tull is convinced from experiment, that it is caused by too much moisture; for planting several plants of corn in troughs of very moist earth, they all produced smutty ears, while very few such were found in the field from whence these plants were taken.
There are two remedies for the smut, recommended by writers on husbandry, viz. steeping the seed in salt brine, and changing the feed.
As to the steeping of feed, when wheat is intended for drilling, it must be soaked in a brine of pure salt, dissolved in water, since urine is found to be highly prejudicial. The most expeditious way of bringing wheat for drilling, is to lay it in a heap, and wash it with a strong brine sprinkled on it, stirring it up with a shovel, that it may be all equally brined, or wetted with it; after this, sift on some fine lime all over the surface, and stir it up, still sifting on more in the same manner till the whole is dusted with lime, it will then be soon dry enough to be drilled without further trouble. It must be quicklime in its full strength that is used on this occasion.
The bread made of smutty corn is very pernicious, acting as a narcotic, and occasioning not only sleepiness, but vertigoes, and even convulsions.