April, 1902.] 
Smut Infection Experiments. 
2 59 
The corn selected for the experiment was growing on the Ohio 
State University farm and was in good healthy condition. At 
the beginning of the experiment, July 30, it averaged about six 
feet in height and was partly in tassel. 
Each stalk in this row 
(972 stalks in all) was 
mutilated on east side, 
but at no given height, 
b}' being scraped with a 
piece of broken hack-saw 
blade. The work was 
done in late afternoon, 
between 6 and 8 p. m. A 
fairly heavy dew fol- 
lowed but no rain for 
several days. 
Results : 15 per cent, 
of the stalks were smut- 
ted while the correspond- 
ing check-row showed 
but 9.7 percent affected. 
The percentage of smut 
on the ear, as compared 
to the total smut on the 
whole plant, showed that 
of the total smut on the 
mutilated row only 29.2 
per cent, was 011 the ear, 
while the check- row on 
the other hand showed 
32.9 per cent. The dif- 
ference is probably due 
to the fact that the ears 
were not developed sufficiently to be affected by the mutilation ; 
/'. e . , the stalks were mutilated while the ears were not. The 
position of the smut balls in relation to the wounds was quite 
Ff/r. /. Sorghum. 3 years old. artificially infected 
through the seed. 
In order to keep the 
different parts of the 
experiment as distinctly 
separate as possible every 
twentieth row was chosen 
and the second row west 
of this was taken as a 
check-row. 
Row No. 1. 
