The Dickinson press., 1912-10-05
B0llEY on SEED GRAIN
DANGER IN WET SEASON

important letter on seed grain:
One of the most interesting studies
which we have been able to conduct at
the department of botany at the Aeri-
cultural college deals with the relation
of wet seed grain to root diseases and
crop production. Some of the results
which we have obtained in our studies
are very interesting and l believe when
fully understood will have a marked
bearing upon the agriculture of the
state.
Farmers and experimenters have al
ways understood that wet. soft grain
is not as desirable for seed for sowing
purposes as similar grain which has
been harvested dry and hard. 1t is q
known fact that grain which is allowed
to become damp and soft at harvest
time does yield as we'll as hard
grain even though the first ~sprouting OF
termination of the softened Drain does
not seem to be materially affected.
Our seed and laboratory studies have
given some new light on the subject.
These are some of the facts:
1. If a field of wheat of the same
qualify in harvested in differeAt ways
so that n portion is saved compare
lively dry while the other is allowed to
get wet in the shock, the wei grain is
found to be more or less bleached or
blistered, musty or mouldy and off
grade as to color and hardness. while
similar grain from the. same area which
has been stored under cock covers,
stacked while dry or saved dry in other
manner is found to be hard and right
colored and spoken of as high grade
true to color and hardness.
2. The roots of the young plants
which grow from the hard grains are
apt to come pure and white and COM
pa%ratively free from disease when
planted upon clean land.
3. 1t is practically impossible to
disinfect the seed from the grain which
has been allo wed to become wet in the
shock or in the bin so as to produce q
comparative healthy growth of roots. If
both of the types of seed are disinfected
in the usual manner and planted the
SAM day. upon the same clean soil it is
observed that the seed from the grain
which was allowed to become damp and
more or less mouldy in the shocks does
not stool as in the case of the hard seed
which has also been disinfected. The
secondary stools come u blighted,
Tip burned"
4. The plants which come from the
disinfected seed which was wet in the
shock carry with them more of the var
ious types of root diseases in the var
ious ages of development than are o be
seen upon the plants from the disinfect-
ed hard, dry seed.
S. The percentage Of plants which
produce poorly filled heads is very
much greater in the case of the crop
which came from the soft or wet seed
than in the case of the crop which came
from the hard seed.
6. There is also a larger percentage
Of s%hrivelled grain from the soft seed
at threshine. time.
7. When the individual grains are
studied..it is found that there is a larger
percentage of actual internally diseased
ones in the crop that came from the soft
seed than in that which came from the
hard lot.
These facts hold true with reference
to flax. If a good crop of mature flax is
harvested in such manner that one half
of it is saved and threshed dry while
the other half is harvested in such a
manner as to allow the crop to become
mouldy or musty in the bundles or
punches the crop from the dry seed
may be graded and so disinfected that
it will be good seed for sowing purposes
and very little, if any, disease will be
carried to the new land. On the other
hand that which was allowed to get
mouldy and musty in the bundles is
bound to produce seed of a security,
mouldy. eruptive appearance and we
find that the interior of such seed is
more or less filled. especially under the
seed coats. with the moulds or fila
ments of the fungi which produce the
diseases known as wilt and canker.
Such filaments are usually so we'll pro-
tected by the mucilage OF the seed coats
that no method of disinfecting can
reach them without destroying the ger
minaiins power of the seed. Thus flax
seed which has been allowed to ret wet
and mouldy in.the bundles is difficult to
treat and disinfect so as to prevent the
introduction of disease into the soil of
new lands.
1t is evident therefore. that one of
the chief injuries occasioned by the
wettin9 of the seed grain in the shock
or bin is due to the opportunity given to
the root diseases whether of flax, wheat
Or other. cereal. to grow into or imbed
ia the seeds in such a man.