New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 297 



between the plats. Untreated plats were distributed so as to 

 form checks for each series of from three to six treated plats^. 

 Four rows of untreated seed were sown at each end of the piece 

 so as to make the conditions of light, etc., of the end plats as 

 nearly like those of the center plats as possible. 



Seeding of Plats. 



Owing to heavy rains the seeding could not be done until 

 May 22 to 26, three weeks after the seed was treated. An equal 

 amount of seed was sown in each row. The seed oats used were 

 selected because of the abundance of smut they contained. This 

 fact gave assurance that the untreated seed used for checks would 

 produce at least an average amount of smut which could be used 

 as a basis of comparison for the treated plats. 



Chemicals Used and Kind of Treatment. 



Plats were sown with seed which had been sprinkled with 1, 2, 

 3, 4, 5 and 6 per cent solutions of lysol, 1, 2 and 3 per cent solu- 

 tions of formalin, and with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 per cent solutions of 

 potassium sulphide and of Ceres powder. Other plats were 

 seeded with oats which had been soaked for 1, 2 and 3 hours in 

 solutions containing 1 part in 1,000 of lysol and of formalin, for 

 1 and 2 hours in 2 to 1,000 solutions and for 1 hour in solutions 

 of these same substances containing 3, 4, 5 and 6 parts in 1,000; 

 while the seed treated with potassium sulphide and Ceres pow- 

 der was soaked for 0.5, 1 and 1.5 hours in solutions of these ma- 

 terials containing 20 and 40 parts in 1,000. 



Germination, Growth and Percentages of Smutted Heads. 



No attempt was made to compare the yield of the different 

 plats, because the seeding was done so late in the spring that 

 the short growth and small heads were unsatisfactory for this 

 purpose. The percentage of smutted heads was determined by 

 counting the stalks. This was done at the time of harvesting, 

 August 16 to 20. The different treatments, with their respective 

 germinations of seed, growth of plants and percentages of smutted 

 heads are given in the following table. The untreated plats are 

 considered normal in germination and growth. 



