10 Department Circular 329, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



TOBACCO 



In Virginia contribution of funds by the Tobacco-Growers' Co- 

 operative Association made it possible to employ for seven weeks an 

 assistant whose time was spent on seed-treatmeni work in the depart- 

 ment of plant pathology. Seed was sent in by farmers, and treatment 

 and germination tests were made. The disinfected seed was then 

 returned with a circular letter in which the growers' attention was 

 called to the necessity for observing the additional precautions de- 

 scribed under the headings. " Plantbed Sanitation " and " Field Sani- 

 tation." in a bulletin 3 which accompanied the letter. 



Fig. 7. — Community seed treatment of potatoes at a Wisconsin creamery. County 

 agents from 47 States reported that in 1923 treatment of seed potatoes was 

 practiced on 39,629 farms. 



CEREALS 



The most conspicuous progress in the field of cereal-seed treatment 

 was made in the State of Washington, where efforts to bring about 

 the use of copper carbonate for control of cereal bunt were con- 

 tinued. This meant a change of practice for wheat growers from 

 the inconvenient wet copper-lime and formaldehyde methods to the 

 dust treatment. The work began in the spring of 1921, with ten 

 1-acre demonstrations. The practice spread in two years until 

 734.961 acres' of the 1923 crop were sown with treated seed. This 

 increase represented much hard work on the part of the extension 

 pathologist and county agents. Farmers had difficulty in procuring 

 the pure chemical, and it was necessary to increase the supply for 

 the State. To make the work most effective, closed machines were 

 used. Farmers either had to build a homemade affair or provision 

 had to be made for commercial or cooperative treatment in large 

 machines patterned after one that was developed by the college. 



3 Promme. P. D., and Wingard, S. A., Blackfire and wildfire and their control. Va. 

 Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 228, pp. 16 and 17. 1922. 



