No. 5.] USTILAGINEZ OF CONNECTICUT. II 
it. In South Carolina during recent years a smut of rice has 
been introduced from Japan, and causes some loss to this crop. 
In the eastern states where onions are raised extensively, the 
onion smut often does considerable injury. In this case the 
smut becomes established in the soil and often prevents profit- 
able onion culture on this land. Corn smut is common every- 
where, and especially on sweet corn causes considerable injury. 
In Connecticut the most injurious smuts, from an economic 
standpoint, are those of onion, corn, barley, and oats. 
Prevention. With those plants where infection takes place 
through the germinating seed, the danger usually comes from 
the spores that mechanically adhere to the seed. It has been 
found that, if these are killed, the crop from this seed will be 
free from smut. Investigations have shown that certain treat- 
ment of the grain with chemical solutions or with hot water 
will kill the spores with little or no injury to the seed. For 
instance, it has long been known that soaking the seed of wheat 
in a solution of copper sulphate of a certain strength for a cer- 
tain time serves to prevent or Jessen the amount of stinking 
smut in the crop. Later it was found that ‘soaking the seed 
for ten or fifteen minutes in hot water at a temperature of 
132° to 135° F. was a more efficient remedy, since there was 
less likelihood of injury to the seed. More recently still came 
the less cumbersome practice of sprinkling piles of the grain 
with formalin, one pint to fifty gallons of water, stirring the 
grain to thoroughly wet it, and leaving it in piles or in bags 
over night for the fumes to act on the spores. The smuts of 
oats, the covered smut of barley, the stinking smut of wheat, 
the grain smut of sorghum and broom-corn, and the grain smut 
of millet, have all yielded to seed treatment. The loose smuts 
of wheat and barley can be prevented or lessened by a severer 
method of the hot water treatment (in which a preliminary 
soaking of several hours in cold water precedes the hot water 
treatment), but this also injures the seed more or less, so that 
a greater quantity per acre must be sown. Corn smut can not 
be prevented by seed treatment, as the smut gains entrance 
through any young tissue of the host. Some experimenters 
have advocated the removal of the smut-balls as soon as they 
appear. It is known that the fungus develops aérial conidia 
