220 



Wheat in rotation. — la the fall of 1889 tweuty-flve plats of one tenth 

 acre each were laid out on clay-loam soil and an experiment begun 

 which included wheat in alternation with oats, corn, and summer fal- 

 low, and wheat continuously, with 20 tons of barn-yard manure yearly 

 and without manure. Each part of the experiment was repeated five 

 times on as many plats. Zimmerman was the variety of wheat used. 

 The results of the first season are reported in a table. ^' They are of 

 interest only as showing the influence of the manure." The yield per 

 acre on the manured plats averaged 40 bushels, while that on the un- 

 manured plats was 35 bushels, showing an increase of only 5 bushels 

 from the use of 20 tons of barn-yard manure per acre. 



Wheat, test of varieties. — Tabulated and descriptive notes on 19 varie- 

 ties of wheat which have been tested two years at the station. 



Of this list, those varieties which have averaged 30 or more bushels during the 

 past two years are the following: Currell 38, Zimmerman 33, Extra Early Oakley 31, 

 and Eed May 30. 



The Ciirreil is so far ahead of all others as to be strikingly conspicuous. It shows 

 plainly the merits of certain varieties over others, and points out indirectly the im- 

 portance of testing and comparing varieties iu order to learn which are the best 

 yielders, and to sift out the unprofitable ones. Although the heads of the Currell 

 were short and slender, they had almost invariably three grains to a spikelet, and the 

 grains were of uniform plumpness. 



Kansas Station, Bulletin No. 12, August, 1890 (pp. 27). 

 Preliminary experiments with fungicides for stinking 



SMUT OF WHEAT, W. A. KelLERMAN, PH. D., AND W. T. SWINOLE, 



B. S. (pp. 27-51, illustrated). — This dis(;ase of wheat is briefly described. 

 "No exact counts have been made in fields in Kansas, but in our experi- 

 mental plats, planted November, 1889, with Kansas seed (untreated) the 

 smut varied from 64 to 86 per cent." The growth of the fungi causing 

 the disease, the mode of the infection of the host plant and the methods 

 of prevention commonly employed are briefly described, with special 

 mention of experiments with sulphate of copper and with hot water by 

 J. L. Jensen, in Denmark. The two closely allied species of parasitic 

 fungi causing the stinking smut are thus differentiated : 



The one species (apparently the commoner iu the West) is known to botanists as 

 Tilletia fcctetis (B. & C), Schroet., and has rather regular sub-globose to elliptical 

 spores, which are smooth tvalled nnd 15 to 22 by 15 to "20/1 in diameter. The other 

 species, known as Tilletla tritici (Bjerkander), Winter, lias regular globose spores, 

 which have a wall marked ivith net-like ridges, and are 16 to 20/< (mostly l7/i) in diam- 

 eter. 



Both species occur in Kansas and were found on the experimental 

 plats at the station this year. These should be distinguished from the 

 loose-smut fungus {Ustilago tritici). 



The loose smut is not confiued to the grains (as the stinking smuts are), but attacks 

 the whole head and converts it into a loose powdery mass of spores held together by 

 a few shreds and plates of tissue. Moreover, the spores of the fnugus causing the 



