158 



ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



A careful examination of a field of wheat or barley after it 

 is well headed out will usually show a considerable number 

 of these naked heads. The spores of this smut are found 

 on the inside of the kernels of grain, and on this account 

 they are hard to destroy. FormaHn has no affect on them. 

 The only practical treatment is what is called the hot water 

 treatment and this is very hard to employ. Another method 

 is to get enough clean seed to plant a small plot, and raise 

 the seed grain from that. Write to your State Experiment 

 Station for full information about smuts. 



Com smut may attack any part 

 of the corn plant. It usually ap- 

 pears in black, soft masses on the 

 ears, stalks or tassels. Each black 

 ball is made up of thousands of 

 spores. These spores live over win- 

 ter in the soil; so seed treatment 

 is not effective. The only method 

 of control is to pick the smut balls 

 from the corn and burn them, or 

 rotation of crops, or both. 



Flax wilt is a disease that affects 

 flax. It attacks the young plants 

 and kills them so they wilt and 

 fall over; hence the name. The 

 spores of this disease live over winter 



Fi ure 69— A i h 1 h h d "^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^' ^^ ^ 



^1? wheat; B.*l\eld*affected controUed by sowing flaxnooftener 

 Sa^Sd b^Uremut.^'^'^^ than once in six or seven years on 

 the same soil, and by using clean 

 seed. If seed from an infected field must be used, it may 

 be treated with formalin the same as oats are treated for 

 smut. In treating flax seed, do not get the seeds too wet 

 oi- they will stick together and be difficult to sow. 



Apple blight, or fire blight, is a disease that attacks the 

 limbs or trunks of apple trees, also other trees. The leaves 

 on the affected parts look as if they had been scorched by 

 fire. The disease also shows on the bark, which turns 

 darker in color. The only remedy is to cut out the parts 

 affected and burn them. 



