202 WEEDS AND PLANT DISEASES 



(40 per cent). This will be enough to treat 40 bushels of oats. 

 On a clean floor spread the grain to a depth of about six inches. 

 Sprinkle the formaldehyde solution over the grain and mix 

 thoroughly with a scoop shovel until all the grain is moistened. 

 Then shovel the grain into a pile and cover it with sacks, blan- 

 kets, or canvas, and leave for eight or ten hours. If this work 

 is done in the evening, the grain can be left in the pile over 

 night and sown the next day. If a drill is used, the grain should 

 be spread out and dried before sowing. If sacks are used to 

 hold the grain, they should be well moistened with the solution. 

 For experimental purposes a small amount of oats can be 

 treated with a proportionately small quantity of the formalde- 

 hyde solution. Sow the treated grain in a small plot of ground, 

 and in another plot a considerable distance away sow untreated 

 grain. When the oats are nearly ripe, look for smut in the plots. 



REFERENCES 



Farmers' Bulletins : 28, Weeds, and how to kill them ; 86, 

 Thirty poisonous plants of United States; 219, Lessons from 

 the grain-rust epidemic of 1904; 221, Fungous diseases of the 

 cranberry ; 243, Fungicides and their use in preventing diseases 

 of fruits; 250, Prevention of stinking smut of wheat and loose 

 smut of oats ; 368, Eradication of bindweed, or wild morning- 

 glory ; 489, Two dangerous imported plant diseases. 



