244 Bulletin 38. 



subdue. Some have received but little attention, and it is hoped 

 future investigation may bring them under control. These facts, 

 however, do not apply to the stinking smut of wheat, for it 

 has been demonstrated repeatedly that certain treatment will 

 destroy the fungus which causes this disease. There is, there- 

 fore, no good reason why the farmer should go on raising smutty 

 wheat year after year, when a little time and patience will in- 

 crease his crops and furnish him more marketable returns for 

 his labors. 



The remedy is simple and easily applied. Any farmer can, 

 by the expenditure of a very small amount of money, treat his 

 seed wheat in a manner that will insure his crop against an attack 

 of this fungus. He needs for this operation, four things : blue- 

 stone or copper sulphate, a good quality of lime, some large 

 vessels which will hold water, such as tubs or barrels, and a 

 place to spread his wheat out to dry when he is through treating it. 

 The operation is as follows : One pound of copper sulphate is 

 dissolved in 24 gallons of water. The seed is soaked in this so- 

 lution for 12 hours, after which the liquid is drained off and the 

 seed again soaked for 10 minutes in limewater, made by slaking 

 one pound of lime in 10 gallons of water. After drying, the 

 wheat can be sown at any time without any danger from the 

 effect of smut. 



The process tabulated is as follows : 



1. Soak seed for 12 hours in copper sulphate solution. 



2. Soak seed for 5 to 10 minutes in lime-water. 



3. Dry the seed. 



4. Sow the seed. 



The only object in drying is to facilitate the scattering 

 of the wheat. Where the acreage is small and the sowing done 

 by hand, the drying can be dispensed with. 



Enough of both copper sulphate and lime solutions should be 

 used to thoroughly wet the grain. Piling the wheat on a barn 

 floor and sprinkling it with the solutions will not give the de- 

 sired results. It is better to fill a barrel two-thirds or three- 

 fourths full of wheat and then pour in enough of the solution to 

 more than cover the seed. The barrels can be arranged with a 



