Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-02
SEE SMUT
IN WHEAT HERE
THAN YEAR AGO
Will Be Impossible to Give Es-
innate of Extent
Until Later.

That the 1922 winter wheat crop
will show a smaller percentage of smut
affected grain than the crop of 1921
is apparent from information reaching
George III. Moran, state grain inspec-
tor located in Great Falls. Until the
inspectors office has handled a ron
siderable number of samples it will be
impossible to estimate the extent to
which smut is evident in the winter
wheat fields this year. but all reports
go to confirm Mr.. Moran's informa-
ton that the volume will be substan-
tally smaller than in 1921.
All grades of winter wheat handled
by the Great Falls inspectors office
last year that were smut affected
totalled to 81 per cent of the whole.
From statistics available it is impOs-
sible to accurately compute the result
ing loss to the growers, but Mr.. Moran
believes that the cash loss resulting
to farmers of the state from neces-
sary discounting approximated So5O.0OO
and that the loss from reduced yields
was perhaps $3.50. 900 in addition.
Wheat may be assigned any numerical
grade and yet be clasSed as smutty.
OF the 1860 samples of winter wheat
handled by Mr.. Moran last year, 653
were smutty.
Concentrated Fight Needed
The percentage of smut in the 1921
wheat crop is listed in Mr.. Moran's
report for the year ending June 30.
1922. to G. G. Davis. state commits
sioner of agriculture. Commenting on
smut in the report. Mr.. Moran says
that individual effort against its
spread and propagation is of little
value. Psychologists in the study Of
smut as a disease in cereals have de
ternlined by tests that the spores. of
which there are thousands in each
smut ball. blow for a distance of 20
miles from the threshing rig says
the report. These spores serve to
propagate the smut in the next smut
by getting on or in the seed where
they are at hand to begin growing
again along with the grain when it is
planted. Therefore. if an individual
farmer should succeed in producing a
perfectly clean crop. he would, unless
isolated and threshed by his own rig,
be likely to find the disease as bad
as ever in a ear or two
The report says that the loss from
smutty grain is not evenly distributed
over the state. but is confined TO GER
tain areas land the only reason the
losses are not greater is because the
winter wheat crop is not so large"
Smut is seldom if ever present in
spring wheat.
Nearly High Top Grade
Figures compiled at Mr.. Moran's
office show that of all the wheat
grown last year in the northern part
of the state, AZ per cent was top
grade. Figures taken from the previ-
GUS wear show that the average for
1920 was 55 per cent. While the past
crop did not show up so favorably as
the p%erviOus one as to quality and
grade, there was less wild growth,
classed as dockage in grading, in both
the winter and spring wheat" reads
the report. Smut in some sections.
irrigation in others and mixtures of
winter wheat with spring wheat over
large areas are the principal reasons
why more of our wheat does not re-
ceive q top grade and price"
Mr.: Moran informs the department
of agriculture in his report that the
present grading of smutty wheat and
agitation for a fancy grade in the
spring wheat class are the principal
questions coming up this year in the
grading of Montana wheat. The fed
eral grain standards leave the option
Of the method of grading smutty wheat
with the different markets. 1t has been
the custom in markets west of the
divide for years to use the smut dock
age system. Inspectors and the trade
use a small capacity scourer n de-
termine the exact percentage OF smut
Of representative card graded. East
ern markets have never used tins