The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-09-15
HOT BATHS FOR SEED WHEAT fe
KEPT DAMAGING SMUT AWAY
Water Control Routs Loose Smut While Fornaldehyde
Bath Eradicates Blunt, Except in Far West Where
Copper Suphate Solution Is Used; Big
Loss from Disease

quently the seed should be spread
out to dry. Great care must be eX-
crcised not to have the water too hot
nor to allow the seed to remain in
the water too long. An advisable
system is to treat or 5 bushels of
seed and to sow it in a special plot
isolated from the wheat fields Pr %,
er, in order that the seed from the
plot may be used for seeding opera
tions the following year. Farmers
who treat their seed in this man
ner fortify their fields against in
vasion by loose smut.
Blunt or sinking smut ranges at
large over the entire wheat-growing
section and generally causes a crop
damage of from l to 5 per cent, al
though frequently Individual fields
show losses which range from 20 to
40 and even as high as 80 and Is
per cent. Blunt is sporadic in distri-
button, occurring here and there and
everywhere in irregular sequence.
One field may be seriously infected
while the neighboring field on the
right may be free from the disease.
The disease shows up a few days pc
fore the wheat is ripe. If one care
fully examines the diseased head at
this time he will note that the glunes
are pushed slightly apart, while the
developing kernel is of dark c1ior.
If he brushes the kernel, really a
smut ball, mass of ill-smelli.r;,
brownish black pores is released. In
thrashing, these smut balls are
knocked out and more or less broken
apart so that the spores are scattered
over the sound seed. On account of
its bad smell, millers discount ard
penalize wheat covered with bunt
dust.
Formaldet1yde Bath Kills Blunt
Sinking smut or bunt is easily
controlled by use of formaldehyde,
pint or l pound of commercial form
ain being Dissolved in 40 gallons of
water. The seed to be treated should
be freed as much as possible from
smut balls and other foreign matter
and then should be placed in a loose
gunny sack, filling the sack about:
two-thirds full, and then the sack
should be dipped in the formalin So
luton and kept there about ten min
utes. By raising and lowering 5ho
sack the grain will be mixed thor
oughly and brought into compl tie
contact with the solution. Alter
| 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 So
luton dissolved in DO gallons of wat
CT is usually sufficient for the treat
ment of 40 bushels of seed grain.
In the Far West and on the Pa
clfic coast, because of the occurrence
of soil infestation by smut in that re-
glon, the copper-sulphate treatment
Is preferable to the formaldehyde
method of controlling bunt The
former treatment consists in dipping
the seed in a solution of / pound of
copper sulphate dissolved in 5 gall
.ons of water. When the seed is re-
moved from the copper sulphate So
luton it should be dipped in mix
ture of pound of quicklime to 10
gallons of water, this latter measure
beng necessary to prevent the con-
tinued injurious action of the copper
sulphate on the grain after the smut
spores have been killed. At thrash
ing time the smut spores are spread
broadcast over the fallowed land by
the wind, as following for wheat is
common practice in the Pacific
Northwest. Subsequently, when the
fall rains occur, these spores GER
inmate and infect the young wheat
plants as they develop. Hence seed
treatment is not entirely effective,
but generally the copper sulphate
control gives the better results be-
cause some of the chemical adheres
to the seed and prevents infection
from the soil.