221 



loose smut are very much smaller and germiuate in an entirely different manner from 

 those of the two TiUetias (stinking snmts). A full account of loose smut is given iu 

 the Report of the Kansas Station for 18&9, pp. iiGl-'^67. * * * The land used for 

 the experiments reported in this bulletin was that occupied in ISfS and 1889 by oat 

 smut experiments [See Kansas Station, Bulletin No. 8, Annual Report for 1889, 

 and Experiment Station Record, Vol. I, p. 21(5], together with the land (adjoining 

 th(> former on the east) occupied in 1889 by second year crossed corn (See Report 

 of Kansas Station for 1889). The soil was a fairly good upland loam that had been 

 nuder cultivation and manured (with stable manure) a few years before. [This field 

 was divided into one hundred and two plats (as shown in a diagram), ranging iu 

 size from 30 to 220 square feet, and planted with smutted seed wheat November 4, 5, 

 and 23, 1889.] Owing to the lateness of the planting, the seed germinated tardily 

 and the plants grew very slowly. By January they were only 1 to 2 inches high. 

 It is probably due largely to this slow growth that the amount of smut was so large. 

 For it is iu the highest degree probable that if the seedlings grow very slowly their 

 tissues remaiu liable to infection a longer time. 



Fifty-one differeut methods of treating the smut were tried on as 

 many different plats, the alternate plats remaining- untreated. Lye, hot 

 water, copper sulphate, Bordeaux mixture, eau celeste, sodium hypo- 

 sulphite, potassium sulphide, arsenic, lime, salt, Castile soap, cistern 

 water, chloroform, sulphurous oxide, carbon bisulphide, ether, ammo- 

 nium hydrate, carbolic acid, sodium carbonate and bicarbonate, potas- 

 sium bichromate, mercuric chloride, salicylic acid, and sodium sulphate 

 were used in different forms and applied for different lengths of time. 

 The results as indicated by the yields of smutted and sound grain on 

 both the treated and untreated plats, are stated in a table, and those on 

 a number of plats are illustrated by a diagram. 



Three of these treatments, viz.: 



Copper sulphate 5 per cent solution, twenty-four hours; Bordeaux mixture, thirty 

 six hours ; potassium bichromate 5 per cent solution, twenty hours, prevented all the 

 smut, though all injured the stand of the wheat somewhat. However, in spite of 

 this injury they increased the yield to two or three times that of untreated plats. 



Besides the above favorable treatments, six others, viz. : hot water 131 to 132'^ Fah. 

 fifteen minutes, skimmed; hot water 132 to 131" Fah., fifteen minutes; copper sulphate 

 8 per cent solution, twenty-four hours; copper sulphate 8 per cent solution, twenty- 

 four hours, limed; Bordeaux mixture, half strength, thirty-six hours; copper sulphate 

 cue half per cent solution, twenty-four hours, gave less than 1 per cent smntted 

 heads, and from two to three times the amount of grain obtained from untreated 

 plats. 



Plat 45, treated with a saturated solution of arsenic twenty-four hours, gave only 

 1.09 per cent of smutted heads and a yield more than two and one half times that of 

 the adjacent untreated plats. The following treatments : sodium hyposulphite, 10 per 

 cent solutiou, twenty-four hours, limed; potassium sulphide, 2 ounces to 6 gallons 

 of water, twenty-four hours, limed ; arsenic and lime, mixture of equal parts 

 saturated solution of each, twenty-four hours; salt, saturated solution diluted one 

 half, thirty-six hours, gave per cents of smut varying from 4.27 to 21.04. The yield 

 exceeded that of the adjacent untreated plats two to two and one half times. The 

 per cent of smut, though only a small fraction of that iu untreated plats, reduces 

 the value of the treatments. 



[The other treatments either produced little effect on the smut or were destructive 

 to the grain.] 



Of all the treatments tested, the Jensen, or hot- water method, is probably the best 



