88 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



the animals on the farm, it is most desirable to extirpate the pest. That 

 its extiri)atiou is possible few will doubt who know, in relation to other 

 parasitic plants, such as the rust in wheat, how effectually the seed 

 may be purified and a healthy plant obtained in a well-prepared soil. 

 Having- fresh land to break up or old to plow again, the farmer should 

 plow deeply and turn over the soil effectually. He should obtain his 

 seed from a district or farm that is high, dry, well cultivated, and free 

 from smut. Inasmuch, however, as the spores of ustilago maidis are 

 minute and in the form of impalpable powder, thousands may be dis- 

 persed in a sample of corn and grow with the plant. To avoid this, 

 dipping the grain in a solution of copperas may be found of great service. 

 The copjieras, in the proportion of one pound to the four bushels of corn, 

 is to be dissolved in a little warm water, then cold added to mak« about 

 a stable pailfull, and with this the corn is simjily washed, not soaked. 

 Soaking makes the grain swell and interferes with sowing in machines. 

 The corn is sown as soon as damped with the solution. 



