446 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



6. Shovel and turn the oats at least once, and preferably twice a 

 day, until dry enough to seed; the time required depends upon the 

 weather and the kind of seeder used. 



7. "When seeding, open up the drill to seed about one-fourth more 

 oats to allow for the swollen condition of the grains. 



KEW^ METHOD RECOMJIEXDED 



While the method just outlined has been entirely satisfactory in 

 killing the smut two-thirds of the time and labor it requires can be 

 eliminated by the use of a stronger solution. A solution of one pint 

 of formaldehyde to ten gal. of water (instead of forty gal.) used at the 

 rate of only one quart (instead of one gal. of weaker solution) per 

 bushel of grain will entirely kill the smut without injury to the oats. 

 Since the use of so small an amount does not necessitate drying, the 

 oats may be sacked at once and at the end of about twelve hours will 

 run thru the drill as readily as untreated seed. 



After three years of experimentation in the field, with the idea of 

 reducing the time and labor heretofore involved, the following procedure 

 is recommended by the Farm Crops section: 



1. Make a solution using one pint of forty per cent formaldehyde and 

 ten gallons of water. 



2. Sprinkle the ten gallons of solution over forty bushels of oats, 

 meanwhile shoveling so that the solution is uniformly distributed. 



3. Sack as soon as the solution and oats have been thoroly mixed 

 and seed the next morning. 



LAEOR AND COST 



Two men in from two and one-half to three hours can thus treat and 

 sack enough seed for forty acres, or an average of about four minutes for 

 the seed required for each acre. Formaldehyde can be secured at any 

 drug store at from 50 to 60 cents per pint, making the cost per acre from 

 4 to 5 cents. 



ONLY 10 FEB CENT OF SEED OATS ARE TREATED TO KILL SilLT 



That there is considerable loss from smut each year is well known 

 to everyone who grows oats, the loss in some seasons averaging as 

 high as eight per cent and in individual fields twenty and even thirty 

 per cent. Yet only about ten per cent of the oats seeded in Iowa are 

 treated to prevent this loss, and this in spite of the fact that the value 

 of the relatively inexpensive and simple formaldehyde treatment has been 

 thoroly established and the method is well known. Undoubtedly this 

 is true, largely because the spring months are very busy. If farmers 

 knew of a method of treating seed oats which would not wet the oats 

 to such a degree as to make it necessary to dry them again before seeding 

 and thus save labor and time perhaps more seed would be treated. 



COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT METHODS OF TREAT]\IENT 



In the spring of 1915 a series of trials was begun to test the value 

 of different solutions made with one pint of formaldehyde each to three 

 gallons of water, to five, to ten, to twenty, to thirty, and to forty gal- 

 lons of water.* 



*In these tests the avithor had at different times the assistance of Messrs. 

 .1. A. Krall, M. E. Olson and L. C. Burnett. 



