East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-02-23

tTictS in Washington and Is Sue |
oessfnl. 81 "a. sd q
The Washington Agricultural col |
/ lege has issued the following import
ant circular on the treatment of
smut in seed wheat:
The disease we commonly call smut
is produced by a small plant which
lives upon the wheat plant and steals
its food from it. The fine black pow
der called smut is made up of a null
titude of small grains each of which
may grow into smut plant if placed
under the proper conditions. The
smut plant is weed. 1t is Il worse
weed for the wheat farmer than is
wild oats, for wild oats grow only in
the soil and there steal the food of
the wheat plant, while the smut plant
grows in the wheat itself and steals
the food after the wheat has extract
ed it from the air and soil
When a grain of wheat is planted
with a live smut grain on it, both of
them soon germinate. The grain of
wheat produces a wheat plant; the
grain of smut produces a smut plant
The smut plant produces smaller
colorless grains which at once grow
into other smut plants. Thus from
one original black smut grain several
smut plants may soon come. One of
these plants bores its way through
the skin of the wheat and gets into
the tissues of the stalk.
| ,f; tee, 20
: growing up with the stalk and steal
ing food from it. But only when the
wheat's skin is soft and young can
' the smut penetrate. About the time
5 that the first green leaf unrolls, the
e skin gets hard and from then on can
r not be penetrated by the smut. If
1 the wheat has not been attacked by
t this time it is safe. If, however the
4 smut plant has succeeded in entering
e the wheat stalk the injury is done
and the wheat will suffer.
f While growing up with the stalk
Y during the winter and spring it
= checks the growth of the wheat straw
t and makes the smutted plants notice
. ably shorter than the sound ones.
f When the wheat head forms, the
= smut plant sends its branches into it
g and takes up the plant food as fast as
it is deposited in the kernels There
/ it places its own grains and thus pro-
/ vides for it's next years growth.
j Methods of Treating for Smut.
d It is evident that the way to cure
IT the smut disease is to attack it while
: it's grains are resting upon the seed
D wheat. There are two general meth
: DDS of attack: % The treating of the
g seed wheat with something that will
retard the growth of the smut and
|, thus allow the wheat an opportunity
IS to get ahead of it; (2) the treating
It of the seed wheat with something
p that will kill the smut and thus re-
J. move all possibility of contamination
e The latter is without doubt the more
o effective method.
o Why VitrioI Fails.
The chief object of this process
seems to be to coat the seed whea
with visible layer of blue vitriol
The farmers are usually satisfied il
after the wheat dries it is blue witt
vitriol The fatal error in the process!
: lies in the fact that but few of tht
= smut grains are killed and that those
II that lie in the crack or groove on ont
side of the wheat grain are not touch
/ ed at all. 1t takes more than on'
+ minute or five minutes or 20 minutes
n to drive the air bubbles out of thi
l. groove and to wet the smut lyns
l. hidden therein.
e The work of one very careful far
mer near Pullman has been followed
this year and his results show th
'e uncertainty of this process. He use'
!, the greatest care in dissolving hi
= vitriol, at the rate of one pound o
- vitriol to four. gallons of water. AT
. ter carefully timing every sack o
wheat for full five minutes, he wa
docked two cents per bushel on 100
er bushels of his wheat and from Is t
a 90 per cent of his crop remained II
of the field as smut.
l. The Formalin Treatment for Smut.
et The formalin treatment is mucl
l. superior to either of the vitriol pro
cesses. 1t kills the smut instead o
ly retarding its growth. 1t does not in
x jure the seed if properly used.
is costs but little if any more than tn
I'd usual vitriol treatment. One farme
In in Whitman county during the seaso
he of 1901 had one of the smutties
t pieces of oats ever seen in this re
gion. This year he treated with for
malin, and as a result it was hard t
u find a smutted head in the whole
ie acres At the same time he sowed
ne small row of the seed untreated, an
~ this was badly smutted. Anothe
~ planted so acres of oats untreate
W and 10 treated with formalin. tn
Vi untreated SO. acres, were smutted I'll
treated 10 acres were not smutte'
= He harvested 10 bushels more to eac
acre on the treated 10 acres than /
did on the Hntreated so acres
What Formalin is.
Formalin is 40 per cent solutio
of volatile liquid in water. AS ol
tained at the drug store. it has II
nd appearance Of water, but has cha
nd acteristic odor II is called by son