96 THE NEW ONION CULTURE 



develop at all, and are more commonly found just 

 below the "knee" ; though they sometimes occur above 

 it. After a time, usually while the second leaf is 

 developing, longitudinal cracks begin to appear on one 

 side of these spots, which widen and show within a 

 dry, fibrous mass, covered with a black, sooty powder 

 made up wholly of the ripened fruit or spores of 

 the fungus, which are blown or washed out onto the 

 ground. In some cases the smut may appear only 

 toward the upper end of the first leaf, and become 

 cut off from the main body of the plant by the with- 

 ering of the former. In such a case an onion which 

 has shown smut in its first leaf appears, in some 

 instances, to recover, showing no signs of smut in 

 its subsequent growth; but as a rule the same dark 

 appearance shows itself in the second leaf and those 

 subsequently formed, and if the seedling is pulled up 

 and examined, the whole plant will be found to be 

 pervaded by the disease to a greater or less extent. 

 Plants thus diseased, especially if the soil is dry, very 

 commonly succumb early, drying while in the second 

 or third leaf. The stronger plants, however, espe- 

 cially if the ground is moist, are able to resist the smut 

 sufficiently to make a considerable growth, and many 

 survive even up to the time of harvesting. 



Distribution and Severity — The onion smut occurs 

 in Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania, if not in 

 several other states ; Connecticut appears to suffer 

 more from this disease than any other locality. 



The severity of the disease in different localities 

 is variable. It appears at first in isolated spots here 

 and there in a field, and from these spreads in all 

 directions until the whole piece becomes affected, and 

 the cultivation of onions upon it has to be discon- 

 tinued. This period from the first appearance of the 

 smut to the enforced discontinuance of the onion crop, 



