Smut In Oats And Wheat

The farmer niay use liis icgeHUity in regard to ttoe treatlqg o:" his whea1 am] oate, and use wihatèver convenientes he has at hand- an.vway So tiiat he acconiiilisiics the desired rcsult. Ome "vvay we iind convenieut is to liave a kettle in wfclch to heat the Mater quite hot, say l(i") dgree8. Near the kettle place a barrel In wftulcb to treat the eeed. FM this liarrel about one-half full of hot water from the kettle and then by addlni; citlier hot or colt! water, the temperature of tEe water in the barrel may be kept at the dflatrèd hetght. It will be found convenient to have the barrel in which the seed is 1(i be t rea teel. sunk into the ground so tbat the top is only a foot or so above the evrlace. Into tiiis barrel dip the Reed. The dipping is easily done by placing aboul a Imshel of seed into a eoarse jfUMiy sa-k, and fnsten this sack to one end of a long pole used as a lever Imng acroes a notched post. The sefd nhoiild le kept movin.ir all the time wliile in the hot water and by usinir the pole thie is casily done. OatB may be treated just before sowing. After takiny: tlicm out of the barrel of hot water it s best to throw cold water over tliem to cool them off, and and then let them stand and drain tAvo or three hours after which they may be eown broadoast. Wbeat dries mach more readily, bo ï sjiread our immediately after treat5ng and left to dry a few hours, It can be sown broadcast or in a forcé f eed drill. As the grain.s will be considerably ' swollen alt-er their treatment it is well to recúlate the drill to feed Irom on to two pecks more per acre than witli dry seed. It will be readily seen that thls method is in the reacli of every farmer. All tlhat is required Is one kettle, one or two barrels, and a coarse eack. Two men in one day can treat ■iKiugrh oats to sow 20 acres or snoagb wiieat to sow 40 aeres. One (.-uitiou to be obsrved is that ging no baga or dished for treated aeed tliat lias been used for the untreated seed, unless. they have first been soalded. The watiT gboold be at 135 degrees wlien tli-e wheat or oats are put in. Allow tile liiain to remáis in the ter Uve minutes and keep the temperature above 130 degrrees. Keej) 1 he seed montng all the time it is In tlie barrel by meara of the pole, to Insare thorough t re-at ment of all the seed. Aim to keep the temperature as nearly 134 degrees as possible. Wben t h f seed is first put in, the temperature of the water will fall rapidly, hut ly adding hot water it can be raiVíed quickly to 134 degrees. We take the liberty of publishing the folio wing 'letters froni two of our iarmers wlho have u.sed the hot water treatment : Holly, XJlch., Oct 28, 18'.J. Mr. Holden: sir- The water wa.s heated to a temperature of 135 öegrees. The oats were placed in coarse, gunny sticks, and were kept in the water at that temperature live minutes, tben taktn out and partially dried. A strip oí aiKut an acre subjected to the hot water trcatnu-nt, was bowd thi-ough the center of the field on the same (kiy and oí the same seed as the uutreated oats. On the strip thu.s treated, do smut appeared. The remainder of the field wiae, on a conservative estímate, one-tenth smut. LEWI MABSH. V ilion City, Oct. 8, 1892. Mr. Holden : sir- I made a basket oí ;ui oíd - icen door that would hold about one bushel. I found tliis to be much better tiian a cloth bag as the water carne ha and went out much qaloker and allowed me to tir the oatn rapidly whlle heatiníí. I had two kt'ttlts, one to heat the water in, frora wiiiili tlii' water M-as dipped into the ulier where the oats were, so as to keep tíie one wfaere the oatá wére betag treated nearly up to 135 degTLLa. Sonietimes I lie water was as as h üli as 140 degrees 1ien the oats Avere put in. The aim wa.s to keep aicr as near 180 degreea as possible. Tlie oats to be left in five minutes. Did not clip tihem in cold water, but spread them Immedlately. We liad some trouble in dryin.ií tlie'm as we spread tliem too thick on the gra.na.ry Hoor. swi twenty aeree, part wdtír drill and part broadeast. Tlie seed for about sixteen arres was ñeated. I tliink that II tlie oats liad been spread thinner while hot, on a large ílour, tliey would have dried very oon. I coiintecl the smut in a drill mark of thp untreated oat.s and (onnd one lie.id in from four to live smutted, liile I foaind none in i1k.sc txeated. The oats from the treated seed looked niiu-h lietter thnn those imtreated. Two fitriji.s through the field were BOwn Avit.h mitreati-d seed. I shall try treatinir oats oexi spring as lam thorouiïhly satisfiel that it paya. A temperature of 130 dereos for five iniinites was entirely satisfact nry. Uw seed treated was very smutty. I slumld Judge that two men would treat alwoit one btishel in ten minYoiirs truly, J. R. BLAKE. It is diificult to secure reliable thermometers, that do not need testinii, i' ss t'han 91.50. Cheaper thermometers are jnst n.s good if tliey have icen properly teeted and marked. We have made arrangements with Prof. Woodwortti ol the I'hysi al DOpa.rtMN'in iy wbicb we CMi secure properly inarkiMl and twted fherinonict !.- wiiich we will end by mail to fainiers in Mi iiian, at coet price (25c). We g-o to tiiis extra tromble hoping tiiat it wUl lx; of tome help to th'! lamiere. Wit'ü a good thermometer there 11 be no difficulty in following th dJrettioiiK given above ; the smut will be destroyed and the Beed uninjured. In oonclarion let m.e say that we siiaii pleased bo aostror any i.ions rriíanlini; Munt. or do iiny t iiiiifi el.se in our power to bielp rid our cropa of tJiia Öeatructlve disease whlcta is costing our farmers much more titan is generally known even ly the fainiers tluemselves. The loss to Mlcblgan this year in the oat erop alone eansed by snuit wil] exceed $1,000,000.00, and this is a very low tatlasMte. The sniut of oats and the stinking smut of heat are parasitif plants. Tlie spores of these smuts attach t.hemselves to the kernels of oats or wiheat and ue smvn with theni. Tlie epores gci-ininatc at about the saine time t lier secd erminatcs and sume was entr Hu1 yonns plant and live upon it until, finally, the head of sinnt appeare. Iioili of the.se smuts can be entirely prevented ata slight expense by the Jensen or hot water treatment. The water should be about 135 degrees wiien the seed is put in, and not ailowed to fall below 130 degrees. Remove the seed at the end of five minutes. Professors Jensen, 8vingle, Kellerman, Arthur and others have tound that "this treatment not only removes the smut from the erop, but improves the growth anl increases the yield." The increased yield is sufficient to pay for the labor and trouble of treatment several times over. Do not conclude that you have no smut becaus you did not see it. In the case of oats the smut is mostly blown off before harvest and the smutted stalis being shorter than the healthy ones, are not observed. Wliat the farmers of Michigan term "low smut" of wfoeat is a different species from the "high smut," but U'itli are subject to the same treatment.