10 May, 1916.] Fielding Wheat. 275 



PICKLING WHEAT. 



By H. A. Mullett, B.Ag.Sc, Science Cadet. 



That Ball-Smut or Bunt can be prevented in the wheat crop by the 

 intelligent use of a proper pickle is so well knoAvn that a repetition of 

 the fact sounds trite ; yet in every farming community there are always 

 some men who are docked from Id. to 3d. a bushel for smutty wheat, 

 and a great many more experience certain misgivings when they notice 

 the wheat buyer carefully poking his sampler just up along the inside 

 of the bag. 



Besides this near-sighted view of direct loss to the individual grower, 

 there is a much broader question, and it concerns the national efficiency. 

 As a wheat exporting country, our wheat comes into competition with 

 that from all parts of the globe, and although Australian wheat has 

 stamped itself as second to none for flour production, yet we have great 

 handicaps, such as distance from the markets and the vagueness of the 

 seasons, that make it criminal to neglect any preventable cause of loss, 

 however small it may seem to the individual. 



Every farmer makes it his business to reserve his seed from the 

 cleanest and best of his crop, and the systematic pickling of this appar- 

 ently clean seed is routine practice, so that the cause of failures and 

 partial failures can only be ascribed to a lack of proper understanding 

 of the scientific facts, and to the use of obsolete methods. 



The standard pickles, viz., 1| per cent, bluestone (1^ lbs. in 10 

 gallons of water) and 1 lb. formalin in 45 gallons water, with immer- 

 sion for five minutes, have proved very successful when used for normal 

 seeding conditions, but farmers, for economic reasons, are often forced 

 to depart from regular methods, and it is here especially that a working 

 knowledge of the principles involved becomes essential. 



Principles Involved. 

 Briefly, to enumerate, first, the characteristics of the disease; and, 

 secondly, those concerning the action of the pickle, they are: — 



(1) That ball-suiut or bunt is a fungus disease, propagated by 



means of tiny seeds or spores, and that almost the only 

 means of infection of a wheat crop is by the sowing of 

 untreated spores in actual contact with grain. Eacli 

 l)all of smut contains enough of these spores to infect 

 every grain in a bushel of wlieat four or five times over, 

 and when it is considered tliat these balls wlien unbroken 

 are impervious to the pickle, it will be seen that any treat- 

 ment of the smutty seed may be risky 1)ns;iu'.ss if these 

 are not eliminated. ' ^ * 



(2) Bluestone :ind formalin act mainly as coniaci poisons, and 



the brush of the wheat grain where the spores readily 

 (•(diect are ])articul!irly diflicult to wet. The effect of the 

 pickle is not limited to tlit> spores alone, but it also 



