The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-01-21

twenty DuSnel crop, even CnOugn no
smut is present on the seed. Sinking
smut in untreated crops oftens takes
fully fifty percent of the yield by
weight, due to shrivelling and actual
loss of grains. If it were estimated that
this disease only reduced the Yell
of wheat in North Dakota by per
cent the loss occassioned to the farmer
and to the business public approx
mates closely 100000 per annum.
The destruction by loose smut in oats
is much more severe upon the yield.
The benefit ocassioned by proper seed
disinfection of oats is likewise much
more pronounced Few farmers would
estimate the increase yield per acre,
year by year. due to formaldehyde
treatment as less than ten bushels per
acre, and potato growers in the United
States would seldom estimate the ben
efits of tuber disinfection and crop
spraying for the prevention OF scab.
rot and blight and other known potato
disease at less than one-third OF the
crop. FlaX-wilt or f1ax-sick soil means
entire loss of crop. that is to say the
fungous plants which produce fax-wilt
and live over year after year in the
soilr.,causing what is known as flax
sick soil, are able to totally destroy
all ordinary fax plants. Our expert
ments and those of farmers who have
followed our advice show that such
soils are not wcrn out or exhausted
chemically and that by proper methods
of seed disinfection and seed selec-
ton it is not necessary to give up the
land or cease to grow the crop Thus,
g.
who have made yields tests upon a
wilt resistant fax furnished to them in
1908 report an average of IA bushels
and one peck per acre upon old flax
sick soils. The trials cover all parts
of the state.
Series of experiments which the
botanical department of the North Da-
kota experiment station has been con-
Quoting on the oldest wheat land on
the college farm also show that be-
sides some of the commonly known dis
eases, such as smut. rust, etc. that
there are other plants which attack the
roots, stems and leaves and the young
seed of the wheat plant. The evidence
of our studies as we have carried them
out throughout the state is conclusive
that the continuous methods of wheat
cropping associated with careless
methods of seed selection and negli-
gence with reference to seed disinfec-
ton has allowed much of the great
wheat areas of North Dakota to be-
come so thoroughly infected by fungi
which live in the soil and in the seed
that our people are beginning to be-
lieve, as they did in the case of flax,
1n is,
due to the soil becoming chemically
exhausted i would not be misunder-
stood as advocating continuous crop
ping of wheat or as claiming that such
continuous culture methods will not
tend to materially injure the soil
chemically and physically, but our ex-
periments have shown that wheat on
such old lands is thoroughly attacked
by several types of soil fungi, and that
whateveN we are able to eliminate
these funfH bw any processes the soil
is yet aha 20 produce crop that
would be considered normal.
Must Consider Weeds and Disease.
It is not my intention at this time to
elaborate upon such features, nor to
give details of the various methods of
fighting particular weeds or particular
plant diseases. hope rather to so
place the subject Before you that you
will understand that farming, if done
for profit must take into account many
factorA IN my belief the evidence Of
experiments throughout the United
States makes it clear that in whatever
crop considered, the weed factor and
the disease factor taken together occa-
sion fully as much crop loss as any
other factor or set of factors. The
fruit industry OF the western states
has largely disappeared Apples in
New York, plums in Ohio and Indiana,
peaches in Delaware, etc, have largely
deterioated not because of lack of soil
fertility but because the farmers of
these sections do not practice The
methods of sanitary culture which are
necessary to ward off attack of plants
which occasion various soil troubles
and diseases OF the trees. The success