246 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



same field, at least a considerable decrease in the loss from 

 smut may be expected to follow the treatment of barley with 

 hot water before planting. 



Wheat is not a crop of sufficient importance in Massa- 

 chusetts to make any extended mention necessary here. It 

 is subject not only to the loose smut mentioned above (Fig. 

 3), but also to the so-called hard or stinking smut or 

 "Bunt" {Tilletia sp., Fig. 6). The latter of these is com- 

 pletely controlled by the hot- water treatment, but the former 

 seems not to be afiected by it. 



A few practical directions for applying the hot-water 

 treatment may be useful here. The seed should first be 

 thoroughly wetted in cold water, and all imperfect seeds 

 and other bodies which float on the top skimmed ofl^. Two 

 kettles of water should be provided, that in one at a tempera- 

 ture of 110^ to 120°, and that in the other at the temperature 

 required for the treatment, 132°. The latter should be kept 

 as nearly as possible at the same temperature throughout 

 the treatment, by the addition of hot or cold water whenever 

 the thermometer shows it to be necessary. The seed is 

 taken in lots of perhaps half a bushel at a time in a basket 

 of wire gauze or a bag of very loosely woven material, and 

 plunged first into the cooler water, lifted out and plunged 

 again until it is thoroughly wetted and warmed. This is 

 important, that the seed may not cool the hotter water too 

 much. Now the basket or bag is transferred to the latter 

 and allowed to remain fifteen minutes, during which it is 

 occasionably lifted and lowered and turned about, to ensure 

 the complete wetting of every grain. When the seed is 

 removed it is quickly cooled with cold water and spread out 

 until it is dry enough to be sown. 



In the case of the corn emut it is not merely the young 

 grains which are attacked, 1)ut the pustules may be found 

 upon any part of the plant ; and an infection of any part 

 sufficiently young to be penetrated by the fungus gives rise 

 in a few weeks to smut pustules. Thus the plant is not 

 beyond liability to infection until all its tissues are hardened ; 

 that is, until the " tassel" appears. 



The only treatment for this trouble which can be con- 

 fidently recommended is the prompt removal and destruction 



