The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-11-11
The cause Of smpt IN Wheat.


site. We regret to see a mistake made
by Mr. Lynch Turner, chairman of a
committee of the Pulaski grange in this 1
State, appointed to examine into the .
cause of smut in wheat, having a large i
circulation in agricultural papers as a
matter of fact to be relied on by farm
ers. The report of this committee was
first published in the Rural Sun, with /
editorial Endorsement. The material
part Of the report is copied into the Ru-
raj New Yorker which says: This is
an important Isubjeet, and enc which
oranges, farm-clubs, and individual
farmers throughout the country should
investigate. This association of farm
eEsa recently becoming so popular and
successful tnaug6rates q new era in the
progress st american agriculture, etc.
The error into which half dozen ag-
ricultural papers have been led, and the
Pulaski grange committee in the fret
start Of this nominal investigation, has
its origin in the fact that all these intel
ligent and respeotablle writers for the
press entirely overlook the careful OBJ
servations and studies of men of cieuce,
aided by microscopes applied to the IN
yestigation of parasites on wheat during
the past two hundred years This is
one among thousand cases where book
knowledge has been of great value to
The farmer to prevent serious mis-
takes. Not 70 do Mr.. Turner seeming
Injustice, We copy from his published
report as follows:
"There is a small, brownish bug,
about the size of buffalo guat, which
makes its appearance soon after harvest
time, and deposits its eggs in the cliff Of
the wheat grain. These eggs are, of
course, sown with the wheat in the fall,
and when termination takes place these
eggs are enveloped,in the plume and car
ried upward in the future growth of the
stem until, perhaps, the latter part of
May, when those conditions favorable to
insect life obtain, and the larvae are
Matched aud may be found in one or more
Of the lower joints of the stem-rarely
above the second from the top. At har-
vest time they may be seen with the
naked eye"
No one has shown that the eggs of in
sects circulate in the microscopic sap
vessels of wheat and other plants, nor
through the smaller pores in the cells of
plants. Animals and plants live on
wheat simultaneously but snlut-bug no
more produces smut than children that
ssat wheat bread. All see see the alb
snrdity of saying that the life of an ear
.ofsoorn, making an animal the father
and mother OF wel-known grain. But
the black mass of smut that often grows
on the seeds and stalks of corn, and in
.thesseeds of wheat, oats and barley, is as
much plant as any cereal can be, and
like cereals has germs derived from pa
rents, which re-appear in offspring de
.scending like the vitality il man himself
from one generation to another Two
species Of smut-Fungi are propagated by
'slovenly farmers in the seeds of wheat
one, the Uredo segetups, and the othel
Qredo foetido. The pores Of these para
rites are killed by washing seed-wheat il
strong brine, and letting it lie in brin
On hour. Should it remain in brine tot
long it will destroy the life of the whea
and render the seed valueless Nothing
Is easier than to infect clean wheat Wit
smut, and raise infected plants, with \
bugs or other insects near the plants
Thousands of experiments of this kin
have been tried In 1916 General Har
mond. distinguished red-wheat grow
er in the town of Wheatland, n. Y
showed the writer head OF smut whea
with small live bugs in the seeds, Ik
bugs in English peas. he claimed tina
the bugs caused the smut We made
plenty of smut with the bugs left ou
from his seed Take sack in whic
smutty wheat has been handled, and pu
init quart Of as pure wheat, washed i
bluestone, chamberlie, or whatever els
you please, that does not kill the germs
in the wheat, hauling the salts to kill th
smut, washed off, and the second infeC
ton from the sack will be perfect an
the harvest crop Of smut as well as on
of wheat, when the quart Of wheat ha
been sown in the usual way. Moulin
is easier than to raise a crop Of cookie,
crop of cheat, and crop of smut b
Planting the seed. The paras ties know
by the name of rust and mildew are M
so easily prevented they are, howeve
blights that belong to the same class
enemies. Draining swamps and clea
culture tend to dry the atmosphere an
keep at a distance those microscopic cell
and germs that produce malarial disea
es in man and his domestic animals, an
very similar maladies in all plants who's
seeds aud fruits form human blood, an
that of eattle-AmericaR.
On the Importance Of Fertilizer