20 



The Bulletin. 



vate as soon after rains as possible so as to hasten the drying of the 

 surface soil. In some cases, as with a sweet corn crop, it will pay to 

 cut out and bury or burn the first formed smut masses when the farthest 

 advanced are full size, but have not yet turned black and broken open. 

 This will usually be a little before tasseling time. Destroy the smut 

 masses in the field after harvesting, and rotate crops. The spores are 

 probably killed in the silo, and the presence of smut in ensilage is not 

 dangerous. The dry spores may irritate the digestive tract of stock, 

 but seem not to have directly toxic properties. 



The loose smut of barley is similar in characteristics and control to 

 the loose smut of wheat, and the covered smut of barley and the kernel 

 smut of sorghum are similar to the stinking smut of wheat. 



TOBACCO WILT. 



Distribution in North Carolina. — This disease has been known in 

 Granville County for many years and is commonly referred to as the 

 Granville wilt. The infected area there lies mainly between the Xeuse 



m^ 







- fw 



Fig. 10. Wilt of Tobacco. The picture shows the destructive effects of the disease, and' some- 

 thing of the appearance of plants in advanced stages. 



and Tar rivers, and has progressively increased until practically all the 

 Granville coarse sandy loam type of soil is now infected. The disease 

 also has been reported on tobacco as occurring scatteringly in Durham, 

 Wake, and Vance counties, and probably in Greene County. On its 

 other host plants, particularly tomato, it has been reported from Alex- 

 ander, Bladen, Burke, Carteret, Columbus, Duplin, Durham, Franklin, 

 Gates, Granville, Iredell, Mecklenburg, Bandolph, Sampson, Vance, 

 Warren, Wake and Yadkin counties. 



Plants Affected. — Tobacco, tomato, Irish potato, pepper, egg-plant, 

 peanut, jimson weed, black nightshade, and ground cherry are suscep- 

 tible, as doubtless are a considerable number of other wild plants. 



