262 



THE IERIGATION AGE. 



SMUT IN WHEAT. 



Smut is a disease, or blight, in wheat, 

 and destroys many acres of the crop in 

 Utah and the west every year. The black, 

 stinking smut is the most general, and 

 seems to be hereditary, in that it follows 

 the seed from year to year, and attacks 

 new crops. This disease is found in the 

 perfectly formed heads and grains. The 

 blight completely obliterates the form of 

 the heads, and blows away, a black dust, 

 leaving only the bare stems. Many ker- 

 nels of the stinking smut remain solid, af- 

 ter threshing, and are not discovered until 

 being cracked in the mill. There is no 

 market for wheat containing smut grains, 

 and the entire granary becomes infected 

 if some method of 'destruction is not 

 adopted. 



The best method for destroying smut, 

 in Utah, is to submit the grain to a bath 

 of vitriol and lime water, just before time 

 for sowing. All the wheat sown is spring 

 grain hence the bath is given after the 

 seed has been stored in the granary during 

 the winter. The bath is made by dissolv- 

 ing ten pounds of vitriol and an equal 

 amount of lime in a barrel of water to 

 make enough for one ton of wheat. The 

 barrel is filled almost full of this solution 

 and the wheat is dipped in and allowed to 

 thoroughly saturate and then spread out to 

 dry. Some farmers use a tin bucket or 

 coal oil can with holes perforated in the 

 bottom. Others shovel the barrel full of 

 wheat and after leaving it stand awhile 

 throw out the grain. Another method is 

 to put the grain in a gunny sack and sub- 

 merge the sack. 



By some means the grain is all wet 

 with the vitriol and lime solution, and 

 then spread upon the barn floor or else- 

 where to dry. This necessitates several 

 turning times by means of a long handled 

 shovel. When the wheat is thoroughly 

 dry it is sacked and hauled to the field for 

 sowing or drilling. If wheat is treated 

 with this solution every year there will be 

 no smut and the crop will be a success. 

 The bath seems to prevent the ravages of 



ants and other insects and to fertilize the 

 germs of the seed, assuring a more uniform 

 state of plants. I have noticed fields of 

 wheat, sown from the same bin, one being 

 treated with the bath, and the other with- 

 out, the one produced excellent market- 

 able grain while the other was almost 

 worthless. 



Some farmers merely mix the dry, pow- 

 dered lime and vitriol with the seed and 

 sow it all together. This method is not 

 so successful, and, frequently, where the 

 grain is irrigated too soon, or improperly 

 handled while growing, the crop is en- 

 tirely destroyed. I have seen seed wheat 

 treated by being dipped into a barrel of 

 water, with a temperature of 150 degrees. 

 The Indiana Experiment Station published 

 a bulletin on the hot water method years 

 ago and I recommended it to Utah far- 

 mers who tried it successfully. But the 

 most satisfactory treatment is the blue 

 vitriol and lime process. Either method 

 is cheap and worth trying by those who 

 are troubled with smut in their grain fields. 

 JOEL SHOMAKER. 



TO PRESERVE THE RAISIN INDUS- 

 TRY. 



T. C. White submitted a plan in a re- 

 cent issue of the Fresno (Cal.) Republican 

 which he hoped would preserve the raisin 

 industry. This plan in brief is to form a 

 syndicate of ten or more solvent business 

 men, who have capital here and abroad, 

 who will buy up all the merchantable rais- 

 ins in the state at the rate of 2$ cents per 

 pound the present tariff on foreign rais~ 

 ins one-half to be paid on delivery and 

 the balance in sixty days. This would 

 fix the price to the grower and prevent the 

 many evils of the present system, chief 

 among which is the picking of grapes be- 

 fore they are fairly ripe in order to take 

 advantage of the high price of the early 

 market, thus filling the eastern market 

 with low grade raisins; and would also 

 prevent the annual combine of Chinese 

 labor upon which the grower has to depend 

 for the greater part, as there is not enough 



