Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-04-13
Oat Smut-It's Prevention.

1t has been estimated that the farmers
Of the United States suffer an annual
loss of more than SlS,000,000 because Of
the parasitic plant that preys upon the
oat crop. For the benefit Of our farmer
readers we give the following two treat.
ments for destroying smut spores in seed
oats, which is given by James Atkinson.
Of the Iowa Experiment Station in the
Twentieth Century Farmer under date
of March 9th. One is the hot water
treatment and the other the Formalin;
HOT WATER TREATMENT.
1t has been discovered that smut
spores are destroyed in ten minutes
when placed in water at temperature
of 1872 degrees Fahrenheit. This treat
ment consists in the immersion of seed
in water at this temperature for this
length of time. If only small amount
of seed is to be treated it may be done
by heating the water on cook stove in
some large vessel, such as the washboil.
er. though large kettle and an open fire
is necessary when the quantity Of seed
is to be treated is large. The method
Of procedure is to use two vessels
barrels will do very well-~placing them
near the heating plant. One Of these
should he more than half filled with wa
ter, kept at temperature Of l20 degrees
Fahrenheit, while the other should be
filed in the same manner, but kept at a
temperature of l52 degrees Fahrenheit
About one bushel Of the seed oats should
be placed in gunny sack and immersed
in the first barrel and kept there until
the seed is thoroughly wet. If the sack
is raised and lowered several times the
seed is more likely to be heated through
and through in the required time, which
should not be longer than two minutes
in the first barrel. AS the cold oats will
tend to lower the temperature, hot wa
ter must be added from time to time.
The first dipping is simply for the pur-
pose Of raising the temperature of the
seed in order that the water in the Sec
ond barrel may not be suddenly chilled.
The seed should be lifted out of the first
barrel into the second. where it should
remain ten minutes, being raised and
lowered during this time in order to in
sure more perfect saturation. During
the time of dipping, boiling water should
be added in small quantities in order to
keep the water at the proper tempera-
ture.
After the seed has been treated in this
manner it should be spread out thinly
OH the barn floor and turned over two
or three times day, until it is dry
enough to put in sacks, which will re-
quire about thirty six hours. Care
should be taken to dip the sacks in wa
ter also, otherwise the work may be al
most entirely undone by infection from
this source. Another precaution should
be taken, namely, that Of placing the
treated seed in a warm room or waiting
until the weather is warm enough so
there is no danger of the seed being
frozen while it is wet.
FoRMALIN TREATMENT.
The formula We use is one pound of
the formalin to forty four gallons of wa
ter. In making up this mixture we took
a large tin feed basket, in which We
poured eleven gallons Of water and four
ounces of the formalin-that is, two Of
the two-ounce bottles. After spreading
out about twenty bushels of oats on the
floor the liquid was sprinkled on with a
watering can while the grain was being
constantly stirred with q seeep shovel