132 FIELD CROP PRODUCTION 



the fanning mill, it is usually profitable to treat it for the 

 prevention of stinking smut, a fungous disease that does 

 considerable damage and sometimes destroys as much as 

 10 per cent of the crop. This fungus will be described 

 elsewhere in the chapter, and only the method of treating 

 the seed for its control will be discussed here. The fungus 

 spores of the stinking smut of wheat and of the loose smut 

 of oats may be killed by treating the seed grain in the 

 following way : Take a pound of formalin (formaldehyde, 

 40 per cent), dissolve it in 50 gallons of water, spread the 

 grain out on the clean floor, and wet it thoroughly with the 

 solution, using about three quarts to a gallon for each 

 bushel of the grain. The work can be done easily and 

 thoroughly if one person shovels the wheat over while 

 another applies the solution with the sprinkling can, then 

 stack the grain up in a pile or in a long rick, and cover over 

 with carpets and blankets to retain the fumes from the 

 formalin, and allow to remain for two or three hours, or 

 even over night. Then spread the grain out to dry before 

 seeding. It should not be returned to the same bags 

 unless they have been treated with the solution, as they 

 may contain spores that will again infect the grain. The 

 drill box also should be sprayed with the solution. 



120. Time and rate of seeding. The time of seeding 

 wheat, of course, varies with the locality. In the winter- 

 wheat districts the seeding is done early enough in the fall 

 to permit the plants to become well established before 

 winter. In the red-winter wheat section almost all of the 

 wheat is seeded during September ; in the northern portion 

 the seeding is done during the early part of the month, 

 while in the southern portion it is usually delayed until the 

 last of September or even until October. In the South- 

 ern States it may be seeded even later than that. If 



