The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-01-26

young pants 10 get 1OOu from the soil,
depending on whether the seed bed has
been well OF poorly prepared. To gath
er moisture and food through the roots
it is necessary that the roots be in act
ual contact with the soil particles.
Therefore it is obvious that the seed
bed should be fine and compact; such a
seed bed as would be made on fall plow-
ed land by disking in the spring and har-
rowing at least once before and once af-
ter sowing. A lumpy and open or too
wet and heavy seed bed does not afford
the hospitable condition which insures
prompt and vigorous termination and
growth. The best of seed may make
good stand sown upon such seed bed
under favorable conditions of heat and
moisture. Seed weak in vitality must
have perfectly prepared seed bed to in
sure a fair stand. Even with seed of
the best quality, it is wise to prepare
the seed bed well.
A COW in good condition will give birth
to stronger calf, and will give more
milk to nourish it, than will COW in
a poor and weak condition. Correspond
ingly plump, heavy kernel of grain
will produce stronger plant and nour-
lsh 1t better than will shrunken, light
kernel. This fact has been demonstrate
ed beyond doubt by experiments testing
the yield from light and heavy weight
seeds.
1t often happens that in a field of
grain parts of the field produce grain of
better quality than do other parts.
| This may be due to the condition of the
soil, to rust, or to lodging, etc. 1t will
often pay to cut and thresh these best
patches by themselves and keep this
seed by itself, from which to separate
grain for sowing. Some farmers prefer
to grow small patches, from select seed
and under favorable conditions. These
patches can be hand-picked and kept
pure and free from weeds. Unless very
careful methods of selecting seed for
these patches are followed, as good re-
'sults cannot be expected as from the
simpler method of selection by the use
of the tanning mill as described above.
Whether in seed plot or in large
field grain to be used for seed should be
allowed to fully mature, if possible If
lit is necessary to harvest grain little
green, it should be carefully shocked and
capped to allow grain to fill better. 1t
is preferable to let grain 90 through the
Sweat" in the stack, instead of risk
ing it's heating in the bin
The grain smuts cause an annual loss
in the crops of Minnesota that may be
kconservatively placed at 10 per cent The
yield of oats is often lessened as much
as 20 to % per cent by smut. Not only
are yields lessened by the smuts, but the
grades are also lowered by even small
amount of smut in the grain.
The SHUTS of wheat, oats and barley
are caused by the growth of minute
parasitic plants that live within the It's
sues of the grain plants and suck their
nourishment from their juices. The black
masses of smut that are seen at harvest
time replacing the seeds which are nor
mally produced are composed of many
seeds or spores of these parasitic smut
plants that have grown and developed at
the expense of the grain plant. Smut
plants are called fungi, meaning plants
that are incapable of gathering plant
food from the soil and water and with
the aid of sunlight producing plant It's
sue Fungi obtain their food either from
decaying tissues of plant life or from
the juices of living plants. SHUTS may
be divided into two general classes, COW
cred or shrinking smuts,. and the loose
smuts. Sinking smuts receive their
name from the fetid odor of the spore
masses when ripe. These masses may
be detected in the form of abnormally
enlarged kernels of grain encased in a
thin covering or skin which abnormally
covers the wheat kernel. Only few
kernels of smut may develop in a head
of grain, or nearly every kernel on the
spike may be affected Loose smuts diff
fer from the sinking smuts in that the
entire spike of grain is replaced with
the smut spore masses except the central
stem, whereas in the sinking smut the
black masses replace only the inner por
tions of the kernels and are not seen
unless the kernels are broken open.
If smutty seed can be SO treated as to
kill the smut spores and not affect the
vitality of the seed, the succeeding grain
crop will be practically free from smut.
There are number of chemicals that
will kill smut, but the experiment sta
ton recommends that farmers use form
aldehyde as being the cheapest and cas-
lest applied and least dangerous to use.
In buying care should be taken to secure
formaldehyde that tests at least 40 per
cent pure; otherwise the treatment is
apt to be failure There are a number
of smut machines on the market for
treating seed grain that bring the seed