The Redwood gazette., 1902-04-02
SMUT IN OATS AND WHEAT.
Agricultural College Issues an Important
Bulletin.

BuueuQs |
Smut in oats is doing more dam
age than most farmers realize. Prof. |
R. A. Moore of the Wisconsin Ex-
pertinent Station visited many coun-
ties in that state IN 1901 and by ac-
tual count found that an average of
20 per cent of the oat plants we're
affected by smut, reducing the yield
by that amount. The smutted
plants are smaller, do not mature
early and are often unobserved.
Consequently, most farmers are not
aware that this plant disease is SO
seriously injuring their crops.
Cause~of Smut-Oat smut is prop
agated by the smut spores which
live over winter on the seed grain,
not in the soil. aud attack the
sprouting oat plant. When the oat
plant begins to ripen, its panicle is
poorly developed, black III color and
its seeds are masses Of smut spores
instead Of sound kernels OF oats,
Formaldehyde kills oat smut
Prof, Moore, after experimenting
with solutions varying in strength
and leaving the oats in the solution
different lengths of time, recon-
mends practically as follows: $
To so gallons of water add one
pound Of formaldehyde, sometimes
called formaline, a disinfectant sold
by druggists in forty per cent. So
luton OF water. Place the solution
OF formaldehyde and water in large
barrels. Place about two bushels
of the seed oats in each large loose
ly woven gunny sack: Submerge
the sacks of grain for twenty min
utes in the solution, lift and drain
for a few minutes and empty on the
barn floor or on canvas to dry.
Treat few days before seeding,
and by shoveling the grain over a
few times facilitate drying and
avoid heating. The treated oats
can be sown with a force feed drill
or seeder when quite damp, but the
machine should be set to SOW about
a peck more than if sowing dry
SEED. The. Wetting Of the oats
causes them to sprout few days
earlier and the formaldehyde does
not hinder the terminating power
Eof the seeds.
Treatment Pays. This is thor.
oughly effective, costs cent or less
per bushel for formaldehyde, and
the labor if not a serious expense.
The Minnesota experiment station
in 1901 treated some hundreds ol
bushels of seed oats by the formal
dehyde,method, dried it and sold it
for seed, with very satisfactory re
suits. Fifty bushels of that seed
treated year ago are still in our
bins. and a recent test shows that
It's terminating power is unim-
paired Farmers should make it a
practice to treat seed oats. once in
three or four years, thus keeping
the stock of seed free from smut
Formaldehyde for Wheat Smut
The same method as above outlined
will kill sinking smut ain wheat.
Here the absence of hulls, which in
oats protect some spores, makes it
practicable to use an easier method
of treatment. Spread the wheat
six inches deep on the barn floor, or
in a wagon box. Sprinkle on the
mass sufficient of the solution, of
one pound of formaldehyde in fifty
gallons of water, to merely wet the
surface of every kernel Of wheat.
Shovel the wheat over few times
while sprinkIing on the water to in
sure that every portion is covered
by film of the solution. Occasion
al stirring is necessary for rapid
drying and to prevent heating or
termination before sowing. The
grain should not be. sacked unless
Thoroughly dried. It is best, when
treating only enough seed for home
use, to apply the liquid two or three
days previous TO sowing the grain.
It will be necessary to open the
drill little wider in sowing than if
the wheat were untreated. Persons
who are making a business of grow
ing seed grain for sale will find it