General Trcaimcnt for Smul',. T13 



CHAPTER XIX. 



General Treatment for Smuts. 



It is only when the true nature and the life-history of the smuts are pro- 

 perly understood that intelligent measures can be devised for effectually 

 coping with them, and the treatment will depend on the individual history of 

 each particular species. But the general rule may be laid down that in every 

 case clean seed should be used for sowing, for, as Bessey^ emphatically points 

 out, " It has been demonstrated over and over again that perfectly clean 

 seed and clean ground will produce a clean crop. It is with smuts as with 

 weeds of all sorts, if we have seeds we shall have weeds growing up as a 

 result, but if we have no seeds there will be no weeds. So with smut. Clean 

 seed upon a clean field will result in a clean crop." 



Since it has been clearly shown that the smuts are reproduced from spores, 

 it is evident that if the spores can be destroyed or their germination pre- 

 vented, the smut itself will not appear, and it is on this principle that the 

 direct treatment for smut is based. But this method is only practicable 

 when the spores are so located that they can be easily reached as in the seed 

 grain, and in other cases only indirect measures can be employed. In the buiit 

 or stinking smut of wheat for instance, where the spores adhere to the 

 grain and infection occurs in the young seedling, all that is necessary is to 

 treat the grain with some substance which, while harmle-ss to the grain, will 

 destroy or prevent the germination of the spores. 



Quite a number of substances have been used for this purpos>, including 

 corrosive sublimate, and found more or less effectual, but there are only two 

 which are generally used by farmers in Australia on account of their ease of 

 application and comparative cheapness, and that is, first, a solution of sul- 

 phate of copper or bluestone, and, second, formalin. All methods of seed 

 treatment known depend for their success to a large extent on the precau- 

 tions taken to prevent re-infection after dipping. Careless farmers put the 

 l)ickled grain into smut-infested bags or omit to clean the drill. If the seed- 

 box contains bunt balls or spores of other siuuts the treated seed will be, in 

 part at least, affected. 



1 adopt a very simple method in the treatment of the seed- wheat, the 

 solution being contained in a wooden cask. The mouth of the bag which 

 is immersed in the solution, and that is to contain the seed, is slightly folded 

 over the edge of the cask and fastened there with a bag ring or hoop. The 

 seed is then gently poured into the sack, so that all the unbroken smut-balls 

 as well as wild oats and light seeds float on the surface and may be skimmed 

 off. In the case of bluestone solution the time of immersion should never 

 exerted one minute, as every grain is sure to be thoroughly wetted in that 

 \\\w\ .V supply of the same strength of bluestone solution is kept ready. 

 in ()r(l(M' to replenish the solution in the cask used for pic^kling. as required. 



Bl.UKsrONK TUKAI'MKNT. 



This is the one most commonly used here, and consists in making a solution 

 at the rate of 1 11). of bluestone to 5 gallons of water, or a 2 per cent, solution. 

 The seed is then placed in sacks and immersed in this solution until every 

 individual grain is wetted, and that only takes about a minute, and should 

 not exceed it. The constant shaking and stirring while being immersed 

 sliould bring all bunt balls to the surface, and these should be skimmed off. 

 The bag is then allowed to drain, and when dry the seed is ready for sowing. 



