EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII 451 



AMOUNT OF SMUT VARIES FROM YEAR TO YEAR 



The amount of smut found in 1912 and 1913 is nearly the same, but 

 it is not unusual to find considerable variation from year to year. As 

 a usual thing oats which are badly smutted one year when used for 

 seed in the following season will produce a crop badly smutted, but 

 this is not always the case as seed known to be badly smutted some- 

 times produce a crop quite free from it. Sultry weather and dashing 

 rains, with little wind at the time the smut spores are ripening, no 

 doubt, results in a decrea'se in the amount of infection, as the smut 

 spores settle, or are washed to the ground, while clear, windy weather 

 at this time results in an increase in smut the following season. An 

 increase in smut infection seems also to occur when warm clear weather 

 continues for several days in the spring immediately following oat 

 seeding, due possibly to a difference in the optimum temperature at 

 "Which the seed oats and the smut spores must germinate. To infect the 

 oat plant the smut spores must germinate at very nearly the same time 

 as the grain, since infection can occur for only a short time following the 

 germination of the seed. 



MORE SMUT IN SOME VARIETIES THAN IN OTHERS 



Of the varieties of oats commonly grown in Iowa, the Early Cham- 

 pion is known to be more susceptible to smut than others; this variety 

 often contains fifteen per cent of smutted plants when most other varieties 

 grown under the same conditions bave perhaps only five per cent. 

 There is considerable variation in the susceptibility of other varieties. 

 In general, the earlier varieties are more badly smutted than those 

 maturing later in the season. 



HEALTHY HOGS FOR HOOVER. 



By IVANHOE "Whitted 



Mr. Hoover is urging the swine grower of the Middle West to make 

 two pigs grow next year where one grew before. Mr. Hoover is in a 

 position to know what he is talking about when he cites the world 

 shortage of pork products, and anything he may have to say on the 

 subject should be listened to and accepted as expert evidence. 



Coincident with the demand made on them for more pork the producers 

 have called attention to certain existing conditions which preclude, 

 absolutely, the growing of pork at a profit. Efforts are being made 

 to work out an impartial relation between the price of corn and the 

 price of hogs, and it is believed the immediate future will bring satis- 

 factory fruit for the labor expended. Mr. Hoover has pledged himself 

 to do everything in his power to secure and to maintain a happy 

 balance of prices, and such an assurance from the nation's food ad- 

 ministrator should justify the producer in buckling down to the business 

 of growing that second pig. 



But there is another problem hanging about the swine grower's door 

 demanding consideration, and that is the problem of cholera control. It 



