288 



Journal of Agriculture. 



[lo May, 1910. 



would ever dream of sowing such a smutty sample of seed, notwithstanding 

 its relatively high germinating power. 



Relative Effects of Bluestone and Formalin on Germination, 

 Infection and Yield. 



Five plots were sown under ordinar\ farming conditions at Longerenong 

 Agricultural College, with the assistance of the Principal, Mr. Sinclair. 

 The variety used was Jade, which had a little smut with smut-balls 

 scattered through it. 



Each plot was carefully laid out and measured and contained .776 of 

 an acre. One portion of the seed was treated with bluestone and formalin 

 respectively on 12th March, 1909, in order to test the effect of treatinjg 

 the grain some considerable time before sowing. Another portion was 

 treated similarly on 17th June, and the whole was sown on 28th June 

 of the same month. The earlier-treated was left in the bags side by side 

 on the barn floor and at sowing time they were still moist, but were dried 

 before being placed in the seed-drill. The seed treated with bluestone 

 solution was mouldy and a la.rge proportion of the grains soft and rotten, 

 while that treated with formalin was a little mouldy, but there were much 

 fewer rotten grains than in the other. 



The plots were critically examined for Stinking Smut, and afterwards 

 stripped with the following result : — 



The experiments are at least suggestive, if not conclusive, and, as far- 

 as thev go, they are strictly comparative. 



In Plot I the seed was so rotten that no one would think of sowing it 

 but for experimental purposes. The crop was very inferior, and the plants 

 so scattered that they were only stripped for compa.rison. 



In Plots 4 and 5 the treated seed was kept for eleven days before 

 sowing on account of the weather. The treatment was practically effective 

 in preventing the Stinking Smut and the germination, as judged by the 

 vield, was in keeping with previous experiments. A special test was 

 made with 1,000 grains each of the same variety of wheat sown at the 

 same time and under similar conditions, with the following result : — 

 Untreated, 88 per cent. ; Formalin, 74 per cent. ; and Bluestone, 60 per 

 cent, of grains germinated. 



Experiments with Flag Smut. 



Since it is now known that Flag Smut may arise, either from the soil 

 or the seed, these experiments were mainly designed to test the relative 

 virulence of the disease when seed was sown in clean ground with the spores- 

 of the fungus upon it, and when clean seed was sown in ground containing 

 the disea.sed straw from the previous crop; also, the effect of different 



