REPORT OF MR. R. ROBERTSON. 

 SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTS TO PREVENT SMUT IN BARLEY. 



285 



To determine the value of Formalin and Massel powder, as preventives of smut 

 in barley, grain of two varieties was again treated this year in six different ways. A 

 check plot untreated was also sown. The size of each plot was 33 by 3 feet. The grain 

 was sown June 14, and harvested September 15. The number of smutty heads and 

 those free from smut in each plot is given in the following table : — 



Barley Treated for Smut. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SPRING WHEAT. 



Eifty varieties of wheat were sown on May 26, in plots of one-fortieth of an acre 

 each. The soil was a clay loam. The previous crop was mangels, having received 

 thirty one-horse cartloads of stable manure per acre, and complete fertilizer, bone meal, 

 and salt, at the rate of 200 pounds each per acre. The land was ploughed in the fall 

 of 1899. after the crop was removed, and in the following spring was worked up by 

 going over it twice with the spring-tooth and once with the smoothing harrow. 



The land was seeded down when sowing the barley to clover and timothy, at the 

 rate of 3 pounds Alsike, 7 pounds IVEammoth Red Clover, and 12 pounds Timothy seed 

 per acre. Complete fertilizer, at the rate of 100 pounds per acre, was sown with the 

 grain. 



The straw was stifF, and some rust was noted. The seed was sown at the rate of 

 1| bushels per acre : — 



V 



