100 



Another nipthod of treatment may be used. Put the solution made as 

 above in a barrel and dip the wheat, a half sackful at a time, leaving the 

 wheat in the barrel one and a half or two hours. E.xcept for the time, this 

 is the same method as is often used for vitriol. By this method, however, 

 neither the smut balls nor the wild oats will be removed. To get rid of the 

 wild oats alone is worth very much to the farmer. 



Cure of Seed after Treatmoit. 



One of the most important points In the whole matter is the care of the 

 seed after the .smut has been removed. If this wheat, which is now clean, is 

 put into dirty sacks or into anything which is covered with live smut, it will 

 again become infected and the treatment will be useless. After ti-eating, then 

 careful disinfecting must be used. The seeder especially is something that 

 should be looked after carefully. Many a farmer plants away year after 

 year with a seeder which is full of smut, and then wonders why his wheat 

 has smut in it. Wash out your seeder thoroughly with boiling water and keep 

 the smut out of it. Keep your wheat clean and you will have a clean crop ; 

 let your wheat get dirty with smut, and you will go into the smut-raising 

 business, one which at present is not profitable for any farmer. 

 Oat Smut. — Formalin Treatment. 



If the desire is to sow forty bushels of seed oats or less, secure from your 

 druggist one pint of formaldehyde. Put into a barrel or tank thirty-six 

 gallons of water and pour in a pint of formaldehyde liquid and stir 

 thoroughly; next fill a gunny-sack with the seed oats and submerge it In 

 tlie solution for ten minutes; then lift the sack from the barrel and allow it 

 to drain fi>r a minute or two, in order to save the solution. Empt.v the oats 

 on a threshing floor or on some outside platform to dry, and repeat until all 

 is treated ; shovel the treated grain over at intervals until dry, or nearly 

 dry, before sowing. 



If a large quantity of seed is to be treated the work will be facilitated 

 by having several barrels or a large tank which will hold a number of sacks 

 of oats, so as to treat several bushels every ten minutes. The time saved by 

 having an abundant supply of the solution in the tank or liarrels will more 

 than repay the extra expense of the formaldehyde purchased. The oats must 

 always be completely submerged for ten minutes. 



It is well to treat seed grain several days before sowing, in order to give 

 it ample time to dry, or difliculty may be experienced when sowing with 

 seeder or drill. If sown while damp, the seeder or drill should be set so that 

 it will sow about one bushel more per acre than when sowing dry oats. 



The formaldehyde solution here recommended is not poisonous to farm 

 animals and will not injure sacks or clothing coming in contact with it. Oats 

 treated with formaldehyde solution and not used for seed may be fed to 

 stock, but when so fed should be mixe<l with other oats. 



Hot Water Treatment. 



This consists in soaking the oats for a given time in water of a definite 

 temperature. 133° F., for ten minutes being usually recommended. This treat- 

 ment in the 1897 experiments of the Station at Tramansl)urg entirely pre- 

 sented snuit. The method does not seem to gain in popular favour, owing. 



