io6 Loose Stunt of Oats. 



Treatment of Seed. 



It is the seedling which is infected, and therefore the destruction of the 

 spores on the seed will prevent the disease • but from the nature of the smut 

 and the nature of the oat-grain itself, certain precautions must be taken in 

 the treatment of the seed. Unlike the stinking smut, the spores of the loose 

 smut are blown about by the wind before all the oat-plants have formed their 

 seed. The consequence is that spores find their way between the scales, v-hich 

 ultimately firmly clasp the seed, and any solutions which merely wr t the 

 outside will not reach these enclosed spores. Hence, any treatment to be 

 effectual must be sufficiently prolonged to allow the solution to reach the 

 spores beneath the hull of the oat. Treatment with hot water is, therefore, 

 very effective, and Close ^ has shown that sprinkling the seed with a 1 per cent, 

 solution of formalin entirely prevents the disease. The drawback to the use 

 of bluestone is that in order to reach the spores the seed must be dipped so 

 long as to injure it. 



