CoLonADo Plant Diseases 
fungus are formed on the surface 
of the stripes and are scattered to 
the barley kernels in thrashing. 
They apparently live over the 
winter on the kernels. 
Experiments carried on at the 
Wisconsin Experiment Station in- 
dicate that stripe may be con- 
trolled by treating the seed with 
formaldehyde, one pint to thirty 
gallons of water for two hours. 
After treatment the grain should 
be dried as rapidly as possible and 
planted at once or stored in bags 
that have been disinfected with 
the formaldehyde solution. 
Ergot (Claviceps purpurea) 
(58) — Ergot atfects rye, wheat, 
barley, oats and a number of wild 
grasses. It is more common, how- 
ever, on rye and wheat and is not 
often found on barley and oats. 
The kernels of affected plants 
are replaced by hard black ergot 
bodies ranging from one-half to an 
inch or more in length. 
klrgot is caused by a fungus 
which infects the plant while in 
Barley stripe. blossom. The sporcs fall upoii the 
young ovary, groAV into it, replacing the developing kernel with a 
mass of fungus tissue Avhich becomes the ergot body. The ergot 
body in the process of development produces spores in great num- 
bers scattered over its surface. These spores are scattered by wind 
and insects to other flowers and thus spread the disease from plant 
to plant. When the grain is mature the ergot bodies often fall to 
the ground where they remain over winter. The following spring 
when the grain is just beginning to head out the ergot bodies germi- 
nate by sending up a number of branches to the surface of the soil, 
each of which produces a quantity of spores on knob like tips. The 
spores produced in this way start the first infection in the spring. 
