Tlie Proparjation and Freventlon of Smid. 397 
freely imported Aldemey cows, though not the bulls, the breeds 
are practically identical. It is not long since Jersey also re- 
ceived Alderney cows. There are, however, still some black 
cattle in Aldemey. The breed had black points originally, but 
as the Guernsey breeders will not buy cows with black points, 
only white-nosed bulls have been used in Alderney for some time 
past, so that black points are nearly extinct. 
Aldemey has a great disadvantage in not being able to ship 
to England without transhipping at Guernsey. It would pro- 
bably pay the farmers to co-operate in buying and using a cargo- 
boat, for there is obviously a great deal of undeveloped wealth in 
Alderney. Possibly, however, the people of the island are quite 
as happy in their comparatively easy-going and primitive mode 
of living as their more enterprising neighbours in Jersey and 
Guernsey. 
XXI. — Tlie Proparjation and Prevention of Smut in Oats and 
Barley. By J. L. Jexsen, Copenhagen. 
[Communicated by Charles B. Plowright, F.L.S., King's Lynn.] 
The disease of cereals known as smut (Ustilago segettim) is, I 
believe, regarded in some parts of the country, in Norfolk for ex- 
ample, with a superstitious reverence : as in bygone times the 
black ears were considered to increase in some way the yield of 
the crop. I found, however, in forty fields of barley and oats 
in diiferent parts of Denmark, that on an average 4 per cent, of 
the barley and 8 per cent, of the oat plants were destroyed by 
it. This represents an average loss of 3s. and 6s. per acre 
respectively, which is equal to about 20 per cent, of the rent, so 
that in these days the subject is worthy of consideration by the 
practical agriculturist. 
A. Propagation of Smut. 
I. The spores of smut (U. segetum) falling on the ground in 
a cornfield during the summer and autumn will not to any appre- 
ciable degree afiect barley and oats grown in that field in the 
ensuing season. This is indirectly proved by the fact, which 
will be hereafter demonstrated, that those spores of the fungus 
which adhere externally to the seed-corn, however numerous 
they may be, are practically incapable of infecting the young 
plants. It is directly proved, however, by the following facts : — 
On the Experimental Farm of the Royal Agricultural School 
near Copenhagen, there is a plot upon which barley has been 
