New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 295 



Lysol sells for about 65 cents per pint; formalin for about 50 

 cents per pint; potassium sulphide for 18 cents per pound; and 

 Ceres powder in bottles of 2.2 lbs for $1.50. 



The Jensen hot water treatment consists in soaking the seed 

 for a given time in water at a certain temperature, 133° for 10 

 minutes being usually recommended. 



Sprinkling is done by applying the solution with a sprinkling 

 pot and shoveling the pile over until all the seed is saturated. 



Smut is a parasitic plant which grows inside of the stalks of 

 oats. The black masses which appear in the heads of oats are 

 the spores, or seeds, by which the smut is propagated. 



Oats attacked by smut are usually dwarfed, and often weak- 

 ened so much that many stalks never head out. 



The following table shows cost per bushel of seed for chemi- 

 cals in the least expensive successful treatments. 



Cost of Chemicals for Prevention of Oat Smut. 



material. 



Lysol 



Formiilin 



Potassium sulphide. 

 Ceres powder 



Sprinkling. 



Strength of 

 solution. 



Per cent. 

 1 

 1 



Cost per 

 bushel. 



Cents. 

 5 

 4 



Soaking. 



Strength of 

 solution . 



Per cent. 

 0.3 



0.2 



2. 



4. 



Length of 

 time. 



Hours. 



1 



1 

 1.5 

 0.5 



Cost per 

 bushel. 



Cents. 



2.7 



1.4 



5.4 



39.6 



The cost of material per acre for treating seed with the 0.2 

 per cent formalin solution is 3^ cents, allowing two and one-half 

 bushels of seed per acre. Sprinkling with solutions of lysol or 

 formalin weaker than 1 per cent was not tried*, but they may 

 prove effective in preventing smut. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The results of some investigations in 1897 in treating seed 

 oats for the prevention of smut are presented in this Bulletin. 



The hot-water treatment, which originated with Prof. Jensen, 

 is one of the most effective remedies for preventing oat smut, but 

 since it involves heating the water and keeping it at a certain 



