1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



883 



with encouraging words like the above, every 

 now and then, on my way ? 



I.OW-I'KICED ONION SEED AND ONION SMUT. 



^f^. Root: — I wish to call your attention to 

 the dollar onion seed, and to warn you against 

 it. You may remember I wrote you some time 

 ago that it had given me a nice crop. Well, so 

 I thought at the time; but it did not turn out 

 so. I told you I had one piece that had smut 

 in it, and laid It to the land; but it was the 

 seed. Only one piece showed it while growing; 

 but when we came to rake them out and pick 

 them up, oh dear! we had to throw away bush- 

 els and bushels of great large ones that were so 

 affected with smut that we could do nothing 

 with them, and they are a dead loss. It will 

 take at least $30 in cash out of me, and I am. 

 little alaie to lose it. This is why we knowit7Hit.st 

 be the seed. Many acres of onions are raised 

 about us, and no one else had smut this year, 

 or ever had it. I sold one man some of the seed, 

 and he had it in his; but he never had it before, 

 and has raised them for years. One field has 

 had onions on it for the past 18 years, and it 

 was never known before. Another had been 

 sowed only three years, and all are affected alike. 

 We fertilized this year, as we have years be- 

 fore. As no one else had smut, and we never 

 had it before, we know it must be in the seed. 

 We feel the loss greatly. These are hard times, 

 and we think the man who sold you diseased 

 seed ought to be made to stand at least a half of 

 our loss. Will you kindly see if something can 

 not be done to help us out in that direction? 



Montague, Mass., Oct. 3. Fked ('. Fuli.ek. 



[On receipt of the above I wrote friend F. 

 that I felt certain it was not because he bought 

 seed at a low price, for nearly all seedsmen, be- 

 fore the planting season was over, came down 

 in their prices to about a dollar a pound; and 

 although the evidence he gives seems almost 

 conclusive, I told him we had better submit his 

 statement to the Ohio I<]xperiment Station be- 

 fore deciding where the trouble lay. I submit- 

 ted the above to W. J. Green, Professor of Hor- 

 ticulture at the Ohio Experiment Station, and 

 below is the reply:] 



A. I. Root: — Yours of the 8th, concerning 

 onion smut, is at hand. The probability is, 

 that your customer is wrong in his conclusions; 

 but there is also a possibility that smut may be 

 carried on the seed. This matter has been 

 pretty carefully studied at some of the station*; 

 and those who are best able to give an opinion 

 say that seed-onions are never affected with 

 smut, nor are sets and tr^splanted onions. 

 On the latter I have some evidence, and think 

 that it is true that the smut never attacks 

 transplanted onions, provided they are started 

 in soil free from the disease. Moreover, it is 

 believed that infection takes place only at the 

 time of germination, and that the disease is not 

 communicated from plant to plant after that. 

 Now, then, if these views are correct there 

 seems to be but little chance of the seed carry- 

 ing the disease, and yet it might be done. One 

 must stretch his imagination somewhatin order 

 to suppose a case, however. It might chance 

 that some smutty soil would get in the seed, or 

 the seed might be cured in a shed where there 

 were smutty onions; but no case that I can 



suppose seems to me sufficient. lean see how 

 the smut could get a start in a field in that 

 manner, but it would talce it several seasons to 

 develop to dangerous proportions, for, as above 

 stated, it does not spread from one plant to an- 

 other the same season, but remains in the 

 ground and attacks the young plants the next 

 year just as they are germinating. 



The probability is, that there was a little 

 smut in the fields the year before, but not 

 enough to attract attention, and last year was 

 the first real outbreak. I repeat, that smut may 

 be introduced with the seed; but an outbreak of 

 the disease can be caused oHly by smutty soil, 

 and the smut may be present in the soil one or 

 two seasons before it is observed— particularly 

 if one has had no experience with it, and is not 

 looking for it. 



A few words about remedies. There seems 

 to be nothing known which is perfectly effectual 

 in preventing the disease, if applied to the soil. 

 Sulphur and sulphate of iron seem to be of 

 some use, but are not thoroughly effectual. 

 Transplanting is effectual, and, having tried it 

 thoroughly, I am convinced that it adds noth- 

 ing to the cost of onion growing if one is pre- 

 pared for it. 



I should have been glad if it were possible to 

 take the other side in this question, and lay the 

 blame on the seedsman; for if any thing de- 

 serves condemnation it is the practice of send- 

 ing out inferior and dirty seeds. Seeds that 

 will not grow are bad; but weedy seeds are 

 worse. Smut is a weed; and if any one know- 

 ingly sends out any kind of smut he ought to be 

 published, particularly the onion smut, for it is 

 distributed only through the grossest careless- 

 ness. W. J. (iKEEN. 



Wooster, O., Oct. 10. 



[Perhaps I may add that we have never had 

 onion smut on our land, and 1 have never yet 

 seen a case of it, that I know of; but from what 

 experience I have had with other similar crops, 

 I feel sure that Prof. Green is right. In regard 

 to dirty seeds, all we purchased at a low price 

 was remarkably pure, clean, and nice. The 

 reason why i express myself so decidedly is, 

 that 1 expected the low-priced seed to be in- 

 ferior in some respects — that is, when we 

 first had it offered so we could sell it for a dol- 

 lar; therefore I examined it very critically, 

 and found it fully equal to that which cost 

 nearly twice as much. Again, we sowed some 

 of the seed twice to test its germinating -quali- 

 ties, and we have grown the onions on our own 

 grounds. Furthermore, if this cheap seed pro- 

 duced smut in other cases, we should certainly 

 hear more of it. Friend Fuller's report is the 

 only one received up to date. The seed was 

 probably furnished us by a large seed-growing 

 firm in Chicago; but as soon as they came out 

 with the low prices, others also offered us seed 

 as low as theirs, or lower, therefore we pur- 

 chased from different reliable seedsmen. I 

 should like to know what onion-growers of long 

 experience have decided in regard to this mat- 

 ter. Is it possible for smut to be introduced 

 through seed?] 



SEEDS FURNISHED By THE GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



Friend Root:— I noticed in Gleanings for 

 Oct. 15 that you speak of two grades of Grand 

 Rapids lettuce seed being offered for sale, and 

 would like to have the experiment stations help 

 decide which is the better. I have had some 

 experience which may help a little. Last spring 

 several packages of Grand Rapids lettuce seed 

 were received from the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington ; and this fall, when I began 

 the sowing for the winter crop, not having a 

 large quantity of the seed which I knew was 



