Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-23

A firebrand rapplied to inflam-
nable finder is no more destructive
than are the Smuts which annually
ravage and pillage the grain crops OF
the United States. Last year 25,-
500, 900 bushels of wheat, 100000
600 bushels of oats, and 5000 900
bushels of barley were the tribute
paid to smut.
There are two SHUTS which attack
wheat, the loose and covered smut.
Loose smut is most serious in the
southern winter-wheat section,
which includes southern Illinois,
southern Indiana, southern Ohio,
southern Pennsylvania, southern
Missouri, Maryland, Virginia, Ken
lucky, and Tennessee, where it
causes yearly losses ranging from 5
to 20 per cent of the entire crop.
Loose smut shows conspicuously
when the wheat comes into head. AT
this time it reduces the grain to
dusty, black refuse consisting large
ly of spores of the fungus which are
spread broadcast by the wind and
rain, The dissemination of the dis
ease is furthered by the fact that
plants and the shedding of the
spores in the diseased plants are
simultaneous, Some of these spores
each the flowers and infect the de-
veloping seed. The seed shows no
external eVluelc6 Oh Inc pleSeIce u
the smut fungus, but when planted
gives rise to the black heads in the
next crop.
Loose Smut Difficult to Control
Loose smut is hard to control be-
cause the fungus exists inside the
seed, and hence can not be reached
by ordinary chemicals without kill
ing the wheat embryo. Fortunately,
the disease can be controlled by the
hot-water treatment which consists
of soaking the seed in cold water
for to 6 hours and then dipping it
in hot water at a temperature of
1872 degree f., for 10 minutes. Sub
sequently the seed should be spread
out to dry. Great care must be eX-
ercised not to have the water too hot
nor to allow the seed to remain In
system is to treat 4 or bushels of
seed and to sow 1t in special plot,
isolated from the wheat fields prop
err, in order that the seed from the
plot may be used for seeding opear-
tons the following year. Farmers
who treat their seed in this manner
fortify their fields against invasion
by loose smut.
Blunt or shrinking smut ranges at
larg cover the entire wheat-growing
section and generally causes a crop
although freqd6ftiy Individual fields
show losses which range from 20 to
40 and even as high as SO and rs per
cent. Blunt is sporadic in distribu-
tion, occurring here and there and
One field may be seriously infected
while the nefghboring field on the
right may be free from the disease.
The disease shows up. in lew days
before the wheat is ripe. If one
carefully examines the diseased head
I.se 1aa hot 11a
glumes are pushed slightly apart,
while the developing kernel is of dark
color, If he brushes the kernel, real
~ smut ball, mass of 1ll-smelling
brownish black spores is released. In
thrashing, these smut balls are
apart so that the spores are scat
tered over the sound seed. On ac-
count of it's bad smell, mtllers dis
count and penaliZe wheat covered
with bunt dust.
Forrnaldehyds bath Ellis Bunt
Sinking smut or b9nt is easily
controlled by iuse of formaldehyde,
one pint or one pound of commercial
formalin being dissolved in forty gall
Ions of water. The seed to be treat
ed should be freed as much as pos
sible from smut balls and other for
eign matter and then should be placed
in 2 loose gunny sack, filling the
sack about tWo-thirds full, and then
the sack should be dipped in the
formalin solution and kept there
about ten minutes. BY raising and
lowering the sack the grain will be
mixed thoroughly and brought into
complete contact with the solution.
After treatment the grain must be
dried and carefully protected from
further contamination either in the
sacks or in the planting machinery.
One pint of commercial formaldehyde
solution dissolved in forty gallons of
water is sufficient for the treatment
of forty bushels of seed grain.
In the Far West and on the Pacific