100 BOAP.D OF AGRICULTURE. 



In other words, the appearance of smut in our fields comes 

 from having smut in our seed. How to get smut out of 

 your seed is a pretty difficult question to answer ; because 

 3'ou must remember, that, if there should be smut on one ear 

 of your corn-plant, the branches of the smut-plant extend 

 down through the plant, and up through the ear ; and the 

 probability is, that the clean-looking and perfect ear that 

 you throw into the bin, while the smutty ear is thrown awaj', 

 contains the srnut-plant in it, all ready to grow when it is 

 planted. That is the probability in every case ; so there 

 is great difficulty in eliminating it: 3^et they are getting rid 

 of it in some places. Under favorable conditions of succu- 

 lence and growth, and a muggy temperature, smut will spread 

 sometimes with great rapidity, and do a great deal of damage ; 

 and under other conditions it does not appear : but, if it "is in 

 your seed, you are apt to suffer every time the conditions 

 are favorable to smut. 



Major Emery (of Lowell). If you plant corn on a piece of 

 land that has just been broken up, you do not find as much 

 smutty corn there as on land that has been under cultiva- 

 tion for several years. I noticed that very particularly this 

 year. We planted a piece of land that was broken up last 

 spring, and I do not know that there was a smutty ear in the 

 crop. We had another piece that was planted with corn last 

 year, and in the crop on that piece there were a good many 

 smutty ears. The seed was all from one lot, and the con- 

 ditions were the same on both pieces. I attributed it to the 

 fact that the land had been cultivated. 



Dr. Stuetevant. There is a very curious thing about 

 smut : it appears to be developed at a broken spot. I am 

 not familiar enough with fungi to say definitely these things 

 are so : I only give the seeming fact. I have been experi- 

 menting a good deal in relation to plants, and I find I am 

 more apt to have smut where I have broken fibres of the 

 plant than under other circumstances. It appears that 

 smut simply passes up through the plant in its growth, and 

 develops at that point because there is an opening for it. 

 Take it under favorable circumstances, — a moist, muggy 

 atmosphere, — and let a sharp wind go through your field, 

 and you will find an increase of smut a few weeks later, and 

 the smut will come upon the broken leaves and stalks more 

 generally than upon the ear. 



