ΓΙ 
DISEASES. ὁ 149 
head that has been moistened will bear from 
30,000 to 50,000.* 
These spores are really seeds, and if the right 
degree of moisture is supplhed they germinate 
in a few hours and produce very minute, thread- 
like plants, from which soon develop “sporids.” 
The wind may blow these latter upon a young 
corn plant, in which case they may grow into 
its vegetable flesh and develop to a remarkable 
degree and eventually break out in the com- 
mon form of smut. 
This disease is distributed through the agency 
of the smut, and the more the spores are scat- 
tered about the more prevalent it may become. 
It is abundant all over the United States and 
in the corn-growing parts of Kurope. While 
considerable damage may occur from this fun- 
gus the extent of this is not generally appreci- 
ated by corn growers. Bessey states} that in 
Iowa he saw a piece of land the crop of which 
“fully 66 per cent had been destroyed.” This, 
however, is an unusually severe case. Prof. W. 
H. Brewer says:{ “I have never seen a field 
which has been injured to the extent of one per 
* Bessey: Bulletin 11, Nebraska agricultural experiment 
station, Dec. 18, 1889, p. 29. 
7 Bulletin 11, Nebraska agricultural experiment station. 
{Tenth census of the United States, Vol. III, report on 
the cereal production of the United States, p. 107. 
