THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 



129 



Conclusion. — State carefully in your notebook just 

 how you treated this peck of oats to kill any spores of 

 smut that might have been on the seed. 



In actual farm practice, the oats are spread on a clean 

 floor, a sprinkler is used, the solution is applied at the 

 rate of about one gallon to each bushel, and the grain is 

 then covered for several hours, after which it is quickly 



Fig. 45. — Treating seed oats for smut. 



but carefully dried. If not sown at once, it must not be 

 allowed to heat or freeze. 



In 1906, eight per cent of the oat crop of the United 

 States was destroj^ed by loose smut. At this rate what 

 would have been the total reduction in bushels in the yield 

 of a thirty-acre field, which produced forty-six bushels 

 per acre, but the seed for which was not treated for smut? 

 If the formalin to treat the seed had cost one dollar and 

 the oat crop was worth thirty-five cents per bushel, 



