CORN PESTS AND DISEASES 285 



by the cultivator or otherwise, thus exposing soft and 

 moist tissues. The ear, about which the farmer is 

 chiefly concerned, is infected through the silk, conse- 

 quently, although the ear is particularly susceptible, it 

 is only for a brief period while the silks are young and 

 moist that it can be successfully attacked. In Fig 81 

 another phase is shown. On the left each joint along 

 the lower part of the stalk bears a mass of smut, which 

 started by spores being washed down inside the sheath, 

 and which, as it grew, ruptured the sheath and became 

 exposed. On the right the uppermost joint of the 

 stalk is similarly affected, but instead of the smut mass 

 breaking through the sheath, it has pushed the stem 

 bearing the tassel to one side, and the sheath remains 

 upright. Figs 80 and 81 are from photographs loaned 

 by the Indiana experiment station. 



SMUT DETRIMENTAL IN VARIOUS WAYS 



The smut injures the corn crop <n two ways. 

 First, by destroying the ears of corn, causing practi- 

 cally a total loss, and secondly, by absorbing the juices 

 of the plant and thus preventing full growth, especially 

 of the ears. Statistics show that plants affected by 

 smut, the ear remaining sound, give a yield on an av- 

 erage of only three-fourths the full number of bushels. 

 The loss in yield of stover is not usually material. 



Besides the actual loss to the crop there is a wide- 

 spread belief that the smut does great injury when 

 eaten by animals. This belief is not new ; it is handed 

 down from the earliest days in the history of corn 

 growing. From the eighteenth century to the present 

 time it has been considered dangerous for animals of 

 any kind, or for man, to eat corn smut. It is reported 

 to produce weakness, paralysis of the limbs, gangrene, 

 loss of hair, staggers, abortion, and very frequently 

 death, which is usually sudden. 



