REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 41 



the hay is spread again to finish the drying, and drawn to the barn or stack before 

 evening. If favoured with fine weather, the hay so cured will be of excellent colour, 

 quality and fragrance, and will command the highest price. If the weather is 

 unfavourable or showery, keep the hay in cocks until it becomes fine again. Many 

 farmers adopt the plan of allowing the newly cut hay to dry at once, as it falls 

 from the mower, without putting it in cocks. Hay so cured is usually more or less 

 bleached and does not retain the fine colour and aroma which distinguishes hay of 

 first quality, and does not command so ready a sale or so high a price. 



WM. SAUNDEES, 



Director Experimental Farms. 

 Ottawa, June 30th, 1893. 



The attention of English dealers in hay was also called to the large surplus 

 which Canada would have to offer, and letters of inquiry from prominent firms in 

 Great Britain and France, were published in the press, as received. The attention of 

 the Eastern Boards of Trade was also called to this matter, and many letters written 

 to the larger dealers in Canada giving them information. A considerable foreign 

 demand for Canadian hay was thus created, and large shij^ments have been made. 



SMUT IN WHEAT. 



\ 

 For several years past much depreciation has occurred in the value of wheat in 

 Manitoba and the North-west Territories from the presence of bunt or stinking 

 smut. This parasitic fungus has infested the grain in large percentage, and owing 

 to the unpleasant odour of the spores which attach themselves to the grain during 

 the process of threshing, much wheat which would otherwise have commanded a 

 good price has been reduced in value and sometimes rendered unsalable. 



In Bulletin 3 of the Experimental Farm series, published in March, 1888, pre- 

 pared by Mr. James Fletcher, Entomologist and Botanist to the Experimental Farms, 

 this subject was brought prominently before the farmers of Canada, the life history 

 of this and another species of smut which injures cereals, described, and remedies 

 recommended for preventing the injury they cause. 



Since that time systematic experiments have been carried on at the Experimental 

 Farms at Brandon, Man., and Indian Head, N.W.T., which have demonstrated that bluo- 

 stone, or copper sulphate (a remedy long used in England for this purpose), is a 

 most economical and reliable means of preventing this evil. The results of these 

 experiments have been fully presented in the annual reports of the experimental 

 farms, but in order to bring the matter more immediately and prominently under 

 the notice of the farmers in the Canadian North-west, who are the chief sufferers 

 from this trouble, a circular was prepared embodying in a condensed form the 

 results of the experience gained, with directions for the use of the remedy, and 

 25,000 of these were printed and distributed among the western farmers a few weeks 

 before the period of sowing. The following is a copy of the circular : — 



TO THE FARMERS OF MANITOBA AND THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES. 



SMUT IN WHEAT. 



The heavy losses which have of late years fallen on many farmers in Manitoba 

 and the North-west Territories from depreciation in the value of their wheat from 

 the presence of smut, should be a warning to every settler to adopt the preventive 

 measures which have been thoroughly tested and shown to be efficient on the Domi- 

 nion Experimental Farms at Brandon, Man., and Indian Head, N.W.T. 



The " bunt " or " stinking " smut is the result of a fungous growth which is 

 propagated by very minute spores, visible only with a magnifying glass of high 

 power. These spores are scattered over the wheat by the breaking of the " smut 

 balls" during the process of threshing, and they give to the grain a characteristic 

 and offensive odour. If smutty wheat be sown untreated these spores will vegetate 



