Smut In Wheat

The nnusnal prevaleuoe of stunt in the wbeat orop of 1898 calis for extraordinary effort ou tbe part cf Michigan wheat growers to prevent a repetition of the loss froru this sonroe next year. It is now well known that smnt is a disease oarried forward froru one year to another in the seed wbeat. Tbe disease oonverts tbe kernel iuto a black, ill-smelliug mass of spores whicb, when the smntty kerneis are brokeii np by the threshing macbine or by bandling, attacb themselves to the sound kerneis. When wbeat so infeotèd is sown, tbe kerneis and these spores of rnnut germinate at tbe same time. The smut plant grows inside the 4heat stem tnroughout the season, and when tbe orop is ripening it tnrns the kernels in the head of the wheat into the well known smofc kernels. The spread of tbe disease may best be prevented by treating the seed wbeat. The following rnetbods of tteating seed wheat to prevent smnt have been sent ont from the experiment station of the Michigan Agrionltural College. Tbe remedies are neither expensive nor laborions in applïcation : TREATMENT NO. 1, FOR31ALIN. Bny at a reliable drug store a pound of forrnalin. It shonld cost yon not far from 60 oents. Mix with 50 gallons of water. Put the seed wtaeat in a pile on a floor which has been swept clean and sprinkler! with the gama sulntion of formalin. Spray or eprinkle the wheat witb tho formalin eolotion, sboveling the pile over meanwhile until all the snrfaoe of every kernel is wet. Do not use an exoess of tbe liquid or it will hinder germination. Leave in a pilo for 24 hours and sow at once, or dry and sow later. The bags and other ntensila with whiob tbe seed wheat comes in oontaot sbonld also be treated. TREATMENT NO. 2. Substituto one pound of corrosiva sublímate for the formaliu in the above remedy and treat the wheat otherwise exactly as explained above. Remember tbat corrosive sublímate is adeadly poison and neither the solntion itself nor the treated wbeat shonld be left where stook oan possibly gain aooess to it. The oorrosive sublímate is rather hard to dissolve and the solution should be preparad by dissolving the ponnd of the órug in three or four gallons of hot water and adding later a suffloient quantity tu bring the total amount up to the required 50 gallnns. TREATMENT NO. 3, BLUE VITRIOL. Dissolve one pound of blue vitriol in four gallons of water and spray tbe wheat as in tbe treatments above. The four gallons should wet 13 bushels of wheat. This ruethod is not as good as either of the preceding sinoe oopper sulphate, or blue vitriol, as it is variously oalled, injures the germioation of the wheat. TREATMENT NO. 4, HOT WATER. Soak the seed wbeat for 10 minutos in water at 138 dsgrees F. Use a tested thermometer only. Provide two vessels large enongh to hold 20 gallons eauh, if possible. Oae shonld oontaiD w::rm watsr at abont 120 degrees F., the other soaldiDg water at 133 degres. Into the first vessel plnnge the seed wheat in a burlap saok or wire basket. Keep it there nntil warm, theu plunge iuto tke seoond vessel, httiDg it out ocuasionaly and shiftinj it abont in the solading water nnti every kernel has been exposed to the temperatore. Remove froin the sec ond vessel. at the eud of 10 minutes and cool immediately, eitber by spread ing on a clean floor in a thin layer or plnnging into a barrel of cold water Dry and sow, or sow broadoast at onoe Botanist Director.