EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 



305 



NOTES ON THE CONTROL OF RYE SMUT (Urocystis occulta). 



ERNST A. BESSEY AND WALTER K. MAKEMSON. 



In the summer of 1915 a specimen of volunteer rye was found near 

 Laingsburg, Shiawassee Co., affected with a peculiar form of smut. In 

 1916 this smut was found in a field at Dimondale, causing a loss of at 

 least 5%, and in fields in Kent, Ingham, Mecosta, Van Buren, and Osceola 

 Counties, causing less than 1% injury. The disease has been reported 

 from Australia as causing over 60% loss and in parts of Minnesota the 

 loss from this disease reaches 25 to 40%. 



Unlike the ordinary smuts of oats, wheat and barley this smut is not 

 found to much of any extent in the head. It occurs in the culm, some- 

 times throughout its whole length but more often in the upper inter- 

 node, i. e., in that part of the stalk just below the head and which in dis- 

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