292 THE BOOK OF CORN 



controlling or stamping out the disease. One course 

 is to protect the crop by some method of spraying so 

 that floating spores may be killed when they come in 

 contact with the corn plant. That it is possible to 

 greatly diminish the amount of smut liable to occur in 

 a field by repeated spraying with some copper com- 

 pound, like bordeaux mixture, has been amply proved 

 by trial. But it is an expensive and cumbersome 

 method, incapable of protecting the ears from smut, 

 because it is not wise to spray the silks when in a re- 

 ceptive condition, and consequently is a method never 

 likely to come into general use. 



The other course is to remove the source of infec- 

 tion by gathering the smut pustules before they break 

 and scatter spores, and to thoroughly destroy them. 

 If the smut masses are gathered from the fields of 

 growing corn two or three times during the season, 

 beginning in July, and the gatherings burned or 

 plunged into boiling water, the injury from smut in 

 the present crop and especially in subsequent ones must 

 be greatly lessened or entirely removed. The wider 

 the extent of country over which this method is pur- 

 sued, the more permanent and complete will be the 

 benefit. By employing boys, or other cheap labor, the 

 method is made financially profitable. 



