101 



no doulit, to the prevalent idea tUnt it is difficult to keep the water at tUe 

 required temperature tlirougliout tlie treatment. The following directions, 

 how-ever, will enable anyone to secure excellent results with little trouble and 

 only ordinary care. Near a large kettle in which the water may be heated 

 a barrel should be sunk in the ground until the top is about a foot above the 

 surface. A few feet from this barrel set a post with a pole across the top, 

 to use as a lever in dipping the sacks of oats into the water. When the 

 temperature of the water in the kettle is above 148° as tested by a f/ood 

 thermometer, pour part of it into the barrel and add hot or cold water until 

 the mercury stands at 148°. About one bushel of oats enclosed in a coarse 

 gunny-sack is now lowered into the water by means of the lever. The oats 

 will cool the water and fresh supplies from the kettle should be added until 

 the temperature is 133°. The sack should be moved constantly to insure 

 perfect penetration of the water to all of the oats, and should be taken out at 

 the end of ten minutes. The oats may be dried by shovelling tlieni over upon 

 a floor three times a day for a few days, and may then be sown as usual: 

 or they may be sown broadcast within a few hours by cooling them with 

 water. The soaking swells the oats so that about one-fifth more, by measure. 

 should be sown. — Experiment Farm Bulletin, Xo. 3. 



Barley Smut. 



The i^-ame method of seed treatment prescribed for oat snuit will lie found 

 effective for barley smut, excepting the solution is made by using one pint of 

 formaldehyde with twenty gallons of water, instead of thirty-six, as recom- 

 mended for the eradication of oat smut. 



Tlie barley hull may be more resistant to the formaldehyde and offers 

 better protection to the smut spores than the oat hulls, or it may be possible 

 that the smut spores of the barley are more resistant than the oat smut 

 spores, consequently, need a stronger solution for their extermination. 

 A Rot ov Stored Celery. 



Celery may be dug in the fall and stored in a cellar to be used during 

 winter and spring. It is usual to pack it closely, with the roots in soil which 

 is kept moist. With right conditions of moisture and temperature the celery 

 keeps well until spring, but if the soil is wet and the temperature varies, and 

 especially if the celery freezes and thaws, it will decay. Decay follows close 

 upon death. The bacteria and moulds are its active agents. They are always 

 present in the soil in which the celery grows, and in the soil in which the 

 roots are packed, and there are no practicable means by which they can be 

 kept away from the plant; neither can they be killed without killing the 

 plant. It remains then to Iceep the celery alive and in health so that it can 

 resist the invasion of the bacteria. A constant temperature, a little above 

 freezing, keeps the celery alive without growing, and keeps the bacteria in 

 check, for they also become dormant at low temperatures and increase 

 slowly, or not at all. If the celery freezes it becomes so much dead matter 

 without resistance, fit food for bacteria, and, as soon as the temperature 

 rises, the celery rots. 



This was observed in some celery stored in the cellar of the Horticultural 

 Department of the Ontario Agricultural College during the winter of 1903-4. 

 The celery tops showed signs of having been frozen, but, as the temperature 



