128 AGRICULTURE. 



Formaldehyd is a liquid that may be purchased at drug- 

 stores. Ask iox forty-per-cent formaldehyd. It costs from 

 50 to 60 cents per pint, and a pint contains enough for about 

 30 bushels of seed oats. It is sold in smaller quantities at 

 10 cents per ounce. If formaldehyd is purchased in consid- 

 erable quantities, it will be well to have the druggist weigh 

 out one ounce in a small bottle, and then mark on the bottle 

 the height to which the ounce reaches. This bottle may 

 then be used as a measure in adding the formaldehyd to 

 the water. 



The Hot-zvatfr Treatment consists in soaking the seed 

 10 minutes in water at a temperature of 133° F. Heat the 

 water in a large kettle, and close by sink a barrel in the 

 ground to within a foot of the top. Pour a part of the hot 

 water into the barrel, and take the temperature with a good 

 thermometer. Then add either cold or hot water, stirring 

 it in the mean time, until it shows a temperature of 138°. 

 Put about a bushel of oats in a coarse gunnysack, tie this 

 to one end of a pole and rest the pole over a post, thus mak- 

 ing a lever, by which the sack of oats may be easily raised 

 or lowered. Now dip the sack of oats into the water in the 

 barrel. The water will be immediately cooled, and hot 

 water must be added to keep the temperature about 133°. 

 Let one person attend to the temperature, and another to 

 handling the oats. Keep the oats moving in the barrel. 

 Take them out at the end of 10 minutes, dip the sack at 

 once in cold water, then spread on a clean floor to dry. 

 Shovel them over three times a day for a few days, when 

 they may be sown with a force drill ; or in two or three 

 hours they may be sown broadcast. As the oats absorb 

 considerable water, it is necessary to sow about half a 

 bushel more per acre than when untreated seed is used. 

 This is on the basis of two and one-half bushels per acre. 

 Two men in one day can treat enough seed to sow twe-nty 

 acres. 



This treatment may also be applied with satisfactory 

 results for the prevention of smut of other cereals than 

 oats, and for prevention of potato-scab, as will be seen from 

 the following article. 



