318 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science 



a small amount of seed if the wheat produced is liable to give a badly 

 diseased crop the next year. 



Another old idea which has acted against a wider application of 

 the treatment has been that the farmers themselves can not handle the 

 treating because it is too complicated and dangerous. The whole treat- 

 ing project is being revised this year. It has been demonstrated in Knox 

 and Shelby counties that a widespread use of treated seed will greatly 

 reduce the dangers of the spread of the smut. In Knox County it was 

 found last summer that wheat which had been treated last year had 

 no smut in it; that which was one year from treatment had no smut; 

 two years from treatment there was one-quarter per cent; and three 

 years from treatment two per cent while in the untreated fields there 

 was an average of eight per cent. This shows rather clearly that the 

 best way to handle this problem is to establish smut-free areas or com- 

 munities. In order to do this it is evident that the actual treating in 

 a large area would soon become too great for one station to handle. 

 This was solved by placing the treating stations in the hands of the 

 farmers themselves. Five groups of farmers in Clinton County, three 

 groups in Marion County and one group each in Henry and Wabash 

 counties treated a total of over 800 bushels. In every case enough 

 seed was treated to plant a whole field and so far as the treatment 

 itself was concerned the work of these farmers was a complete success. 

 The steps in advance that have been made are these : 



1. Enough seed is being treated for whole fields so that it will 

 be much easier to keep this wheat separate and propagate the seed. 



2. The farmers themselves are beginning to handle the treatment 

 and in this way greatly increasing the number of centers from which the 

 treated wheat can start. 



3. Smut-free areas are being established in which it is hoped that 

 wheat can be maintained free from loose smut for several years. 



ONION SMUT IN INDIANA.^ 



C. T. Gregory, Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station. 



A sui-vey of all the important onion growing regions of Indiana in 

 1922 showed the smut disease to occur abundantly in Lake County, 

 around Munster, and in one locality near Rensselaer in Jasper County. 

 In the vicinity of Munster there is a considerable industry in the grow- 

 ing of onion sets and in these fields the disease is very severe, frequently 

 causing losses of 50 per cent or more. The losses caused are of two 

 types, a direct loss by the destruction of the plants and indirectly by 

 the production of over-sized onions which are often discarded as they 

 are not salable as sets. These over-sized onions are the result of a 

 thinning of the stands by the disease permitting the onions that remain 

 to grow more than is desired. In addition, it has been found that the 



'Contribution from the Botanical Department (Extension Division) of Purdue Uni- 

 versity Experiment Station. 



