09 



many <if the spores are dissemiuated. and becanse. there heiiig no fetid odour 

 cniittfil by the spores, they do not spoil eitlier the crop of ^vheat amongst 

 whieli they grow or the flour made therefrom. 



As with bunt so with tliis loose smut: it is evident that the disease 

 begins at the bottom and works miwards. In all instances when the spores 

 appear in the injured ears the spawn may l)e detected in every part from 

 the root through the stem to the inflorescence. In no case, however, can this 

 spawn lie found in parts through which it is not necessary for it to pass in 

 oriler to reach the point where the spores are formed; thus they are not 

 found in the blades of the leaves. This smut is not restricted, like bunt, to 

 the seeds alone, but the whole ear is destroyed. — Central Experimental Farm 

 Bulletin, No. 3. 



Rciiirtlies. — Wheat. 



For wheat, proliably nothing is more effective than the connnon bluestone 

 treatment, using one pound of bluestone dissolved in a pail of water for eight 

 or ten bushels of wheat. The solution should be sprinkled over the seed and 

 the grain shovelled over several times, to insure that every kernel of grain 

 is moistened with the solution. It is not always convenient to have boiling 

 water to dissolve the bluestone. and it will not dissolve in cold water unless 

 it he placed in a sack and susijended in water, just below the surface, when it 

 is claimed it will dissolve in a few liours. The an\ount of bluestone necessary^ 

 to make a barrel of pickle can thus be dissolved readily by susiiending it in 

 an old sack across the top of the barrel, just so that all the bluestone is 

 submerged under water. 



I'liniiiiliii Treatment. 



Formalin is a -10 per cent, solution of a gas in water. As obtained at the 

 drug-store it has the appearance of water, lint has a characteristic odour. 

 It is iioisouous in the strong sohition in which it is bought and sold, but not 

 in the weak solution in which it is used on tlie grain. About one pound of 

 formalin is necessary to each bi or ."lO bushels of grain to be treated. One 

 should be able to purchase it at the drug-store for about 45 to 60 cents per 

 pound, buying It in pound lots or larger. Mix it with water at the rate of 

 one pound of formalin to eO gallons of water. Jfake a wooden trough al)0ut 

 the size and style of a watering trough and a little wider than a shovel. 

 Partly fill this trough with the formalin solution. Four the wheat slowly from 

 the sacks into the trough, so that the grains will separate and the smut balls 

 and wild oats will float. Skim these off. Let the wheat remain in tlie trough, 

 and see that it continues to be covered with the formalin solution for at 

 least one and a half or, better, two hours: at the end of this time, shovel it 

 out on to a barn floor which has lieen cleaned with boiling water, or shovel it 

 into a canvas sheet which has been cleaned in the same way and is supported 

 between posts. If the weather he favourable for drying the wheat, it may at 

 once be put into tlie sacks and dried in them. Tse only clean sacks, that is new 

 sacks, or those which have been cleaned in boiling water. Soaking Little 

 Club Wheat (which is the softest wheat raised in Eastern Washington) for 

 one and a half to two hours will not appreciably soften it. At the end of that 

 time it can scarcely be dented by the linger nail. 



