Cereals 269 



icals. His test was without results, since, during the season 

 of his experiment, neither treated nor untreated wheat was 

 smutted. Prevost of France in 1807 was the first to publish 

 an account of the successful use of copper sulfate for wheat 

 smut. He recommended a solution of about 6 per cent 

 strength, and the remedy was, and is, still widely used. Solu- 

 tions vavying in strength have been employed, one-half per 

 cent being most highly recommended. In 1873 Dreisch 

 improved the copper-sulfate treatment by using limewater 

 following the copper sulfate; thus, to a large extent, diminish- 

 ing the amount of seed killed by the treatment. 



Jensen, a Dane, in 1887 and 1888 reported excellent 

 results with oat, barley, and wheat smuts from dipping 

 the seed in hot water. Untreated seed gave 36 per cent of 

 smut. One-fourth per cent of copper sulfate gave one-half 

 per Cent smut. Warm water, 56° C. (133° F.) for five minutes, 

 gave no smut. Kellerman and Swingle soon afterward in- 

 troduced this last treatment into this country. 



In 1888 the germicidal action of formalin was discovered 

 and this substance was used as a preventive for oat 

 smut by Bolley of North Dakota during the years 1894 

 to 1897.=*-^ 



The use of the various smut remedies is usually attended 

 by an increase in vigor of the plants, and by an increase 

 in yield in excess of that due simply to the elimination of 

 the smutted grains. Thus increases of over 4 bushels per 

 acre have been found in wheat fields in which only about 

 \}/2 bushels were destroyed by smut. Similarly, with oats, 

 the increase in jdeld is often five times as great as the quan- 

 tity of grain lost by smut in fields not treated. This may 

 be due to elimination of the fungus from plants which other- 

 wise would have to resist it throughout a portion of their 

 growth period or it may be due to the killing of spores of 

 numerous fungi other than those of smut on the seed which 

 exert an adverse influence during and following germination. 

 An excellent account of the early history of smuts in general 

 may be found in the Report of the Kansas Agricultural 



