SECTION XL. DISEASES OF OATS AND 

 WHEAT 



IN a field of ripening oats we can generally find 

 some blackened smutty heads. The black dust which flies 

 when these are touched consists of spores, whose only 

 business is to cause more smut in next year's crop. 

 They lodge on healthy oat grains in the field or while 

 the crop is being thrashed. Healthy grains on which 

 smut spores lodge do not become unhealthy, but when 

 planted they carry the smut spores close to the sprouting 

 plants. 



Oat-smut. The only time when the smut fungus of 

 oats can enter into the oat plant is just at the time of 

 sprouting. If the smut spores can be destroyed on the 

 seed to be planted, not a single head of smut will appear 

 in the field, and the yield of oats will be increased six to 

 twenty-five per cent. These germs on the seed can be 

 killed either with scalding water or with formalin. Do 

 this by soaking the seed for ten minutes in hot water that 

 a thermometer shows to be between 132 and 135 degrees. 

 Or smut may be entirely prevented by thoroughly wetting 

 the seed oats in water to which one ounce of formalin has 

 been added for every three gallons of water. After treat- 

 ing seeds with formalin keep them moist and covered with 

 cloth for about two hours, so that gases from the formalin 



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