30 SOUTHERN FIELD CROPS 



Smut. 



(7) Insert a barrel hoop, or sides of a bottomless box, over a 

 number of oat plants in the field ; count the number of smutted 

 and healthy heads ; calculate the percentage of smutted heads, 

 and the apparent loss per acre from smut if the yield of the field 

 would have been thirty bushels per acre had there been no 

 smut. 



The oat panicle and stems. 



(8) Compare the form of panicle of Red Rust-proof oats with 

 that of Burt or Turf oats. 



(9) Record the number of whorls (sets of branches) and the 

 number of spikelets in each of five heads of oats. 



(10) Record the total number of stems of ten plants with abun- 

 dant room and of ten plants in a part of the field where the plants 

 are thick. 



Samples of threshed seed. 



(11) Carry out directions for prevention of smut by the for- 

 malin treatment (paragraph 30). 



(12) Practice the hot-water treatment for smut. 



(13) Save some seed in both treatments above and make a ger- 

 mination test, in soil or in germinating box, of 100 seeds treated 

 with formalin, 100 with hot water, and 100 not treated. 



(14) Make a germination test of 100 small seeds from upper 

 grains of spikelets and of 100 large grains, each of the latter 

 being the lower grain of its spikelet ; notice results in 7 or 14 

 days as to percentage of germinated seed and character of 

 sprouts or young plants. (In a good sample, 97 per cent should 

 germinate.) 



(15) Note all differences between seeds of Red Rust-proof, 

 Burt, and Turf types of oats. 



(16) Make drawings of a spikelet of Red Rust-proof freed of 

 chaff, showing number and position of beards. Do likewise for 

 some other variety. 



(17) Determine the weight of a measured bushel of several 

 samples of oats, by weighing a gallon or peck. 



