608 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



By another year you may learn to avoid many errors which might 

 now arise through inexperience. 



Use formaldehyde at the rate of one pound of the standard 

 strength to forty or forty-five gallons of water (the same strength 

 used for wheat and oats). Spread the seed upon a tight floor or 

 upon a canvas and sprinkle or spray on a small amount of the liquid 

 (a fine spray is best). Shovel, hoe, or rake the grain over rapidly. 

 Repeat this spraying, shoveling, hoeing or raking until the surfaces 

 of all of the seeds are just evenly moist, not wet enough to mat or 

 gum, but evenly damp. (This can be done without matting if the 

 grain is well hoed or shoveled over while the solution is slowly and 

 evenly sprayed upon it). When the seeds are just evenly moist, 

 cease applying the solution, but continue to shovel the grain over so 

 as to get it dry as soon as possible. Avoid any excess of moisture. 

 If flax seeds are dipped in the solution or are allowed to get wet 

 enough to soften the seed coats so that they will stick together, they 

 will be considerably injured or even killed. (N. D. E. S. B. 50.) 



There are also no types of our farm plants which may suffer 

 more harm from the presence of weeds than flax. This alone would 

 be sufficient excuse for thoroughly cleaning the seed before sowing 

 upon the land, but there are other good reasons for doing so. We 

 have found by experiments that the weak, immature, scaly or chaffy 

 seeds are able to carry great numbers of the spores of the wilt disease 

 lodged in the scales or creases. Such seeds are usually soft at thresh- 

 ing time and thus, if spores fall upon them, they become glued to 

 the seed. In one experiment seeds from the screenings taken from a 

 lot of flax seed which was diseased contained a very much greater 

 percentage of flax wilt spores than the plump seed from the same 

 sample. The test showed but two soil infections from 100 of the 

 plump seed taken from the cleaned sample. This sample had been 

 run through the fanning mill but once. The weak, scaly seeds 

 taken from the screenings produced thirty-seven soil infections from 

 one hundred seeds planted. It ?s thus quite certain that a thorough 

 cleaning and grading of the flax seed would greatly reduce the pos- 

 sibility of infecting new soils with the flax wilt fungus. We earn- 

 estly recommend that those who do not think that they have time to 

 treat their seed flax, or are afraid to do so for fear they may, through 

 inexperience, injur^ the seed, should clean the seed thoroughly. 

 This will remove all weak seeds and tend to cause an even stand of 

 the flax, which is much to be desired, as it is very important in a flax 

 crop that the plants should be of even strength so that they may 

 ripen evenly. The spores of the flax wilt do not seem to be able to 

 cling to good, smooth, plump seeds, unless the flax has been wet 

 or damp at some time. When such good seeds are run through a 

 fanning mill, the loose spores and bits of chaff and dust which carry 

 the disease are blown away. 



Cautions. It takes less than one-half gallon of the solution to 

 properly moisten one bushel of flax seed. One must treat flax with 

 much more care than that usually taken in treating wheat or oats for 

 smut. The solution recommended is strong enough to kill all seeds, 



