io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vineyards of the country, this is the method employed to save the 

 crop from black rot, mildew, etc. 



In the cereal-growing regions, oats and wheat are frequently 

 damaged by the ravages of smut, a disease nearly all farmers are 

 familiar with, which destroys the seed or the entire head. This 

 smut is a mass of spores or seeds of a parasitic plant ripened in 

 the seed grain. The spores are scattered over the field, and min- 

 gle among the grain when thrashed out. The grain is planted in 

 the fall or spring, and the spores of the parasite germinate and 

 grow along with the young plant, feeding on its juices. When 

 the head of the plant begins to mature its seed it is blasted by the 

 smut. 



A simple remedy has been devised to combat the smut of oats 

 and what is known as " bunt " or stinking smut of wheat. Inves- 

 tigations begun by Prof. Jensen, a Danish scientist, and also con- 

 ducted at the Kansas and Purdue University Experiment Sta- 

 tions, conclusively show that by soaking the seeds of these cereals 

 in water at a temperature of 135 to 140 Fahr. for five minutes 

 all the spores were killed, and the crop from the treated seed 

 would grow free of the malady. This simple method, costing 

 nothing for materials, bids fair to be extensively used in future. 

 It is estimated, as a result of investigation, that ten per cent of the 

 oat crop is destroyed by smut. In 1889 the oat crop of Indiana 

 amounted to 28,710,935 bushels. The value of the estimated ten 

 per cent of loss is $797,526 for 3,190,104 bushels of oats at 25 cents 

 a bushel. Certainly, if this sum can be saved it should be. 



Few people realize the enormous loss to agriculture through 

 the ravages of insects. In his annual address before the Associa- 

 tion of Economic Entomologists at Washington in August, 1891, 

 Mr. James Fletcher, the president, gave important facts concern- 

 ing the extent of the losses from insect ravages. In 1864, Dr. 

 Shimer estimated the loss to the corn and grain crops of Illinois 

 to be $73,000,000. In 1874, Dr. Riley estimated a loss to Missouri 

 by insects of $19,000,000. In 1887, Prof. Osborne, of the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural College, estimated the loss to Iowa by insects at $25,000,- 

 000. Mr. L. O. Howard, in 1887, estimates $60,000,000 losses from 

 chinch bug in nine States ; and Prof. Comstock estimates that the 

 cotton Aletia in 1879 caused a loss of $30,000,000 in the cotton 

 States. Finally, Mr. Fletcher estimates $380,000,000 as the sum 

 total per year for losses from insect ravages. 



There are numerous illustrations available to demonstrate 

 how great are the services of scientific research, from an ento- 

 mological point of view, to agriculture, but I will refer to only 

 three, as these are of striking interest and serve to illustrate the 

 work. 



The citrus industry of California is a great one, involving 



