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AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



The smut plant grows upon the wheat or oat plant, ripens 

 its spores in the head, and is ready to be thoroughly 

 scattered among the grains of wheat or oats as they come 

 from the threshing machine. 



These spores cling to the grain and at the next planting 

 are ready to attack the sprouting plantlet. A curious 



thing about the smut is that it 

 can gain foothold only on very 

 young oat or wheat plants; that 

 is, on plants about an inch long 

 or of the age shown in Fig. 91. 

 When grain covered with smut 

 spores is planted, the spores 

 develop with the sprouting seeds 

 and are ready to attack the 

 young plant as it breaks through 

 the seed coat. You see, then, 

 how important it is to have seed 

 grain free from smut. A sub- 

 stance has been found that will, 

 without injuring the seeds, kill 

 all the smut spores clinging to 

 the grain. This substance is 

 formalin. Enough seeds to 

 plant a whole acre can be treated 

 with this formalin at a cost of only a few cents. Such 

 treatment insures a full crop and clean seed for future 

 planting. 



Fig. 92 illustrates what may be gained by using seeds 

 treated to prevent smut. The annual loss to the farmers 

 of the United States from smut on grain amounts to 



FIG. 92. TREATED AND 

 UNTREATED WHEAT 



