76^ Eeport of the Botanist of the 



of poor seed and' unequal distribution of the fungicide the resulte 

 obtained were unreliable. 



Although the results of Dr. Thaxter's experiments plainly indi- 

 cate that onion smut can be controlled to a large extent by 

 the sulphur-lime treatment, and notwithstanding the fact that 

 accounts of his experiments have been widely published, it 

 appears that onion growers have made very little use of the treat- 

 ment; and, so far as we can learn, no other experiments upon it 

 have been reported. 



OUR OWN EXPERIMENTS. 



ORIGIN OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 



At a Farmers^ Institute held in Goshen, N. Y., in March, 1S96, 

 there was a lengthy discussion of onion smut and its treatment. 

 One of the writers of this bulletin who was present took part in 

 the discussion and read the account of Dr. Sturgis"^ experiments 

 on transplanting onions to avoid smut. The onion growers pTes. 

 ent were unanimously agreed that, in that locality, it was wholly 

 impracticable to transplant onions. They were confident that 

 the process would prove too expensive. Moreover, the market to 

 which they cater requires small to medium sized bulbs suitable 

 for boiling whole. Hence, an increase in the size of the bulbs due 

 to transplanting w^ould tend to reduce their market value rather 

 than increase it. 



As a result of the discussion a resolution was passed requesting 

 the New York Agricultural Experiment Station to undertake 

 some experiments on the treatment of onion smut. 



We were then, and are still, of the opinion that transplanting 

 as a method of circumventing onion smut is worthy of considera- 

 tion by Orange County onion growers. However, as there was evi- 

 dently a strong prejudice against transplanting and a desire for 

 a less expensive treatment we decided to repeat Thaxter's experi- 



•L. c. Dr. Sturgis' paper was not yet published at that time, but he 

 kindly loaned us the manuscript for use at the Institute. 



