SMUTS 



5418 



SNAIL 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes: 



Customs Duties 

 Free Ports 

 Free Trade 



Port of Entry 

 Protection 

 Revenue-Cutter Service 



SMUTS, minute plants (fungi) which live in 

 certain other plants as parasites. Smuts attack 

 wheat, oats, barley and corn and cause great 

 damage to crops every year. The black dust, 

 or smut, consists of the millions of spores given 

 off by the ripened fiuigi. These lodge on other 

 plants, penetrate to the interior and begin their 

 growth to produce another crop of spores. The 

 smuts which attack wheat, oats and barley are 

 in the seed, and in most cases the spores can 

 be killed by treating the seed before planting. 

 Soaking wheat in a solution of one pound of 

 copper sulphate to a gallon of water for five or 

 six minutes will destroy the spores of wheat 

 smut. Oat smut is destroyed by spreading the 

 seed on a floor and sprinkling it with a solu- 

 tion consisting of one pound (one pint) of 

 formalin to fifty gallons of water. Soaking the 

 seed in hot water is also effective. The tem- 

 peratures may range from 125 to 135 F. 



Corn smut does not get into the seed, so 

 cannot be prevented by any of the methods 

 already described. The spores lodge in the soil 

 and in manure, and attack the young plants, 

 penetrating the stalk and sending fibers into 

 every branch, leaf and flower. In this way the 

 fibers get into the ear, where the fungi mature 

 and burst forth just as the farmer thinks he is 

 to have an abundant crop. The smut, which is 

 of a bluish-black color, appears at the tip of 

 the ear, where the kernels swell to several times 

 their normal size and burst, sending the spores 

 into the air to be blown about by the wind. 

 Smut may also appear in the tassel and the 

 leaves. 



Corn smut is prevented with difficulty be- 

 cause the spores may be carried over to the 

 next season in so many ways. Masses of. smut 

 are left on the ground and remain in the soil. 

 The spores get into the fodder and then into 

 the manure, where, in the spring, spores which 

 attack the next crop are developed. Rotation 

 of crops is the surest preventive of corn smut, 

 since the spores will not live in the soil over 

 more than one season. Seed from an infected 

 field should not be planted, and all smut- 

 infected ears should be destroyed, if possible, 

 before the spores mature. See FUNGI; BACTE- 

 RIA AND BACTERIOLOGY. W.F.R. 



SMYRNA, smir'na, formerly the chief sea- 

 port of Asiatic Turkey, capital of the vilayet 



of Smyrna, is situated on the western coast of 

 Asia Minor, on an arm of the Mediterranean 

 Sea (see map, opposite page 417). It lies about 

 200 miles southwest of Constantinople, with 

 which it is connected by a line of railway, and 

 is built partly on the slopes of Mount Pagus 

 and partly on the plain below. This interest- 

 ing city, which is on the site of a Greek colony 

 in existence over seven centuries before Christ, 

 is now famed chiefly as the center of an Ori- 

 ental rug trade. Smyrna rugs are made in va- 

 rious small villages in the vicinity. The city 

 has an excellent harbor and a modern quay, 

 and in normal years exports great quantities 

 of figs, raisins, sponges, silk goods, rugs, hides 

 and grain. There are five distinct sections to 

 the city, the Mohammedan, the Jewish, the 

 Armenian, the Greek and the European. Fine 

 churches, schools, hotels and shops give the 

 European quarter the aspect of a modern city, 

 and the Armenian and Greek sections are of a 

 similar character. The population of the place 

 is estimated to be 350,000 ; over one-half of the 

 people are Greeks. The city and province were 

 taken from Turkey in 1919, and will be under 

 the protection of the powers. 



SNAIL, snayl, a group of mollusks inhabit- 

 ing both land and water, and distinguished by 

 having a spirally-coiled shell attached to the 

 soft body (see MOLLUSKS). A snail, when it 

 desires protection or wishes to go into winter 



if , e 



PARTS OF A SNAIL 



(a) Eye; (&) tentacle; (c) mouth; (d) nerve 

 ganglia; (e) foot; (/) mucous gland ; (g) liver; 

 (h) lung; (i) aesophagus. The upper illustration 

 shows the snail in its natural position. 



quarters, withdraws the entire body into the 

 shell, as the attaching membrane is a muscular 

 process. This shell, which consists of but one 

 valve, is often called the "house of the snail." 

 This covering is secreted by the skin of the 

 animal, and is composed of a limy substance. 

 At first the shell is soft and pliable, but it be- 

 comes harder as the animal grows to maturity. 

 Charles Lamb once wrote 



The frugal snail, with forecast of repose, 

 Carries his house with him .where'er he goes. 



