DISEASES, 147 
CELA PeDEGE: pel. 
DISEASES. 
The Indian corn plant is appreciably injured 
by but very few fungous or bacterial diseases— 
in fact less than is any other cereal. Of these 
smut is the only one commonly known all over 
the United States. 
The following diseases are the only ones of 
sufficient importance to especially merit atten- 
tion in these pages: 
Smut.—(Ustilago maydis, Corda.). Smut as 
seen by the farmer is either a distorted, green- 
ish-white piece of vegetable tissue, or a mass 
of black, greasy powder, which generally ap- 
pears breaking out from an ear of corn or from 
the leaf or stalk when green or succulent. 
The source of this disease is a simple, tubular, 
minute plant, too small to be seen by the naked 
eye, which grows in the tissues of the corn 
plant and feeds upon its juice. These little 
plants, of which there are vast numbers, branch 
out in tubular form when they find a spot in 
