RELATIVE RESISTANCE OF WHEAT TO BUNT 3 
remained almost bunt free, whereas others showed from 25 to 60 
per cent of bunt. Kirchner (7) in 1908 reported the results of two 
to four years experiments in Germany with a large number of varie- 
ties, including 33 winter varieties of common wheat. Some of 
these remained almost bunt free, while others produced as much 
as 33 per cent of bunt. 
Darnell-Smith (#), of Australia, after repeated experiments came 
to the conclusion that certain wheats have properties which render 
them immune from bunt. He mentions Cedar, Florence, and Medeah 
as being resistant, and states that they have little brush and a 
horny endosperm. McAlpine (8) reported the results obtained by 
several workers in Australia in determining bunt resistance of wheat 
varieties and hybrids. 
Gaines (6), of the Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, 
reported in 1918 the results of his studies of the comparative bunt 
resistance of 13 varieties of commercial wheat. He found the 
Turkey and Alaska varieties to be highly resistant to this disease. 
Others were more or less highly susceptible. 
In 1921 Donkin (3), of South Africa, reported the results of experi- 
ments in 1918 and 1919 to determine the relative bunt resistance of 
20 varieties, including all types of wheats grown in South Africa. 
He included in his experiments three varieties of durum wheat 
(Triticum durum), three of Polish wheat (T. polonicum) , two of 
poulard wheat (T. turgidum), one of club wheat (T. compactum) , 
and 1 1 of common wheat ( T. vulgar e) , the last consisting of bearded 
and beardless and early and late varieties. Practically all except 
the common wheats remained bunt free. One variety of durum 
wheat, Wild Goose (Arnautka) , had 2 per cent of bunt in 1918 in plants 
cut back when the culms began to form. Among the common wheats 
Bieti showed an average of 3 per cent of bunt, and other varieties 
showed 14 to 36 per cent. 
PRESENT INVESTIGATIONS 
LOCATION AND SCOPE 
Preliminary experiments on bunt resistance conducted at the 
Sherman County Branch Station, Moro, Oreg., in 1918, with the 
results previously obtained at the Washington station, are the bases 
for the present investigations. 
Experiments were begun, therefore, in the fall of 1918 at Moro and 
at Pullman, Wash., in cooperation with the Oregon and Washington 
Agricultural Experiment Stations, to determine on a large scale the 
relative resistance of wheat varieties to the bunt fungus. These 
experiments included practically all the commercial wheats of the 
United States, as well as numerous other varieties and pure-line selec- 
tions assembled in the wheat-classification nurseries of the Office of 
Cereal Investigations. 
In 1919 the experiments were also confined to Oregon and Wash- 
ington. The seed of the wheat varieties sown in the classification 
nurseries at Moro and Pullman in the fall of 1918 was smutted with 
spores of Tilletia tritici. These experiments included 455 varieties 
and pure-line selections at Moro and 186 at Pullman. Seed of 
numerous varieties of wheat from Australia and India and about 134 
