vit] Smuts 81 
grains grow perfectly free from smut as the loose smut 
of wheat is incapable of infection at the seedling stage. 
The public threshing machine is a great friend of 
those smuts which infect at the seedling stage, as it 
serves to spread them from one farm to another. When 
smutted corn is threshed the next lot that goes into the 
machine will be infected unless the thresher is cleaned. 
If used it should be thoroughly cleaned beforehand. 
The drill should also be thoroughly cleaned. 
In the case of the group B the smut fungus is 
already present in the harvested grain, having got in 
at the flowering period. Dressing the grain as for 
group A is not a prevention as the steeps cannot reach 
the fungus. A modified hot water method has been 
found which kills the fungus and at the same time does 
little damage to the grain. This method consists of 
soaking the seed for about 6 hours in cold water and 
then putting it for 10 minutes in water at 130° F. The 
soaking in cold water apparently affects the fungus in 
such a way that the hot water kills it. 
These two smuts are present in most of our wheat 
and barley fields to a much greater extent than the 
covered forms, as the latter are usually prevented by 
one of the three methods given above. 
Bunt or Stinking Smut. 
Wheat is the only cereal which suffers from this 
disease. The diseased plants are very similar to healthy 
ones until the approach of harvest. On passing 
through a wheat field, containing plants which are 
bunted, by observing closely we shall be able to note 
that in some of the ears the wheat grains are visible. 
These bunted grains are swollen and cause the glumes 
P. FE. 6 
