24 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
tarded emergence. In general, the degree of retardation was in- 
tensified with increases in duration of treatment at a given tempera- 
ture and with increases in temperature with a given duration of 
treatment, as was also noted in the germination of seed treated 
with hot water. Many of the seedlings which required over 10 
days to emerge were small and spindling. 
In an experiment to determine the effects of steam treatments 
on the control of loose smut and bunt and on yield, untreated and 
treated seed of the same two lots of Goens wheat (Nos. 16 and 17) 
were used. On October 28, 1921, untreated seed and seed from each 
of the treatments of each lot were sown on the Arlington Experiment 
Farm, Rosslyn, Va., in rod rows in 10 replications. The rows were 
spaced 1 foot apart, and the rate of seeding was 6 pecks per acre. 
The results are presented in Table 13. A zero in the smut columns 
indicates that no smut was found in a complete examination of the 
plants in all 10 rows. When less than 1 per cent of smut was present 
it is shown by T (trace), and the total number of smutted heads 
found in an examination of all 10 rows appears in parentheses. 
The other data represent the average percentages of smut deter- 
mined by making a count of 200 heads in each of five rows. 
Table 13.- — -Percentages of infection of loose smut and bunt, and individual and 
average yields of Goens wheat from two lots of seed untreated or treated with steam, 
as specified, following a J+-hour soak in cold water and grown at Arlington Experi- 
ment Farm in 1922 
[T = trace (less than 1 per cent). 
The figures in parentheses show the number of smutted heads found in 
all 10 of the rod rows] 
Treatment of the seed 
Kind and temperature 
Untreated. 
Treated: 
At 46° C. 
At 47° C. 
At 48° C. 
Duration 
Hours Minutes 
30 
30 
30 
30 
Percentage of Percentage of . ■ . , fbushe u 
bunt loose smut ACrc yiom ^ )U - sneL 
Lol if, 
1.0 
T(9) 
1.0 
T (2) 
T (8) 
T (3) 
T(3) 

T(l) 
T(7) 

T(3) 

T(4) 
1.0 
T(6) 
T(4) 
Lot 17 
6.5 
3.8 
3.3 
2.2 
2.0 
T (6) 
T (8) 
T(3) 
T(2) 
2.2 
2.2 
1.5 
T(7) 
T(2) 
1.5 
1.3 
2.8 
Lot 16 
Lot 17 Lot 16 
4.5 
6.1 
T(5) 
T(5) 

T(l) 













T (8) 








T (13) 
T (6) 
T(l) 
T(2) 

.T(l) 
24.9 
24.2 
22.9 
24.2 
25.3 
23. 5 
24.5 
23.9 
22.2 
25.4 
24.3 
24.4 
24.0 
21.5 
25.9 
23.5 
22.7 
Lot 17 
24.1 
23.6 
23.2 
25.6 
26.8 
22.9 
24.3 
23.2 
23.5 
24.5 
23.3 
23.3 
25.2 
21.1 
26.3 
23.4 
24.2 
Aver 
age 
Table 13 shows that 10 of the 16 treatments completely controlled 
loose smut. None of the treatments eliminated bunt, but those at 
46° C. for more than three hours and at 47° C. for more than two 
hours reduced it to a trace. Two of the treatments, one at 46° C. for 
live hours, the other at 47° C. for three hours, reduced the yield 
slightly in excess of 1.5 bushels per acre. Nine of the treatments 
reduced the yield less than 1.5 bushels per acre, whereas five of the 
