30 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



the climate is too warm. The same is true in 

 parts of the United States. In some regions 

 where the heads do not fill out well the grain is 

 profitably sown for forage and pasture. The 

 succulent stems are rich in nutriment, they dry 

 quickly and make excellent hay. Plowed under, 

 they enrich the soil. 



Oat straw is used extensively for paper-making, 

 for packing, stuffing mattresses, and for bedding 

 for stock in barns. 



Smut is a fungous disease that appears when 

 the oat plants should be setting seed. Instead, 

 the heads become masses of loose, black powder. 

 The particles of dust are the spores of the destroy- 

 ing smut. They are scattered by the wind, and 

 lodge in the spreading bracts, the green "chaff" 

 of sound oats. When these oats are sown next 

 spring the spores sprout with the sprouting of the 

 grain. The fungus grows into thread-like meshes 

 that penetrate the tissues of the young oat plant, 

 robbing it of the food that the leaves prepare, and 

 finally replacing the seeds entirely with the black, 

 slimy masses that ripen into the black powder. J ! 



Only oats that carry the spores into the ground 

 with them will produce smut bodies in the place of 

 kernels. This fact enables the farmer to prevent 

 the disease. He simply soaks his seed oats for a 



