404 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
Where, as is generally the case, the dog-town 
is at the foot of a hill, a sloping furrow is 
plowed along the face of the hill, in such a 
manner as to collect the water and convey it 
to the town, where smaller furrows are open¬ 
ed to take a supply to each house or hole. 
By this method the water is used as it falls, 
and Mr. D. suggests that the work must be 
attended to during a heavy rain, to see that 
the furrows are kept open, and that each 
family gets a fair share of the water. 
Poisoning .— The greater number of our 
correspondents advise poisoning as the most 
effective means of getting rid of the animals, 
and all but one uses Strychnia, and this one, 
from his success in exterminating squirrels, 
by the use of Carbon Bisulphide, had no 
doubt that it will be equally efficacious with 
Prairie Dogs. Carbon Bisulphide, or Bisul¬ 
phide of Carbon, is a remarkable liquid, made 
by combining sulphur and carbon (charcoal) 
at a high heat and condensing the vapors. 
Formerly it was a rare and costly chemical 
curiosity, but of late it has come into use in 
various arts, and is now made on tb$ large 
scale very cheaply. It is exceedingly volatile, 
and its vapor is suffocating to all animal life. 
Mr. R. P. Thomas, who lives on the coast range 
in the vicinity of San Francisco, Cal., found 
his place so undermined by squirrels, that he 
could not get a crop or grow a tree. After 
several trials of other methods, without much 
success, he procured the Carbon Bisulphide, 
putting an ounce of the fluid into each hole, 
and closing the opening with earth. He suc¬ 
ceeded in clearing his grounds by this meth¬ 
od, and is now only troubled by an occa¬ 
sional stranger from outside. In localities 
where this liquid can be obtained without too 
much expense, we have no doubt that it will 
be efficacious. In the majority of cases, how¬ 
ever, Strychnia, or Strychnine, as it is often 
called, is the most available and the cheap¬ 
est poison. This has been so long in gen¬ 
eral use in the far west for killing wolves, 
that most persons who would employ it for 
Prairie Dogs, are well aware of its dangerous 
character. As in the use of Paris Green and 
all other deadly poisons, only those thoroughly 
aware of its properties, and the fatality that 
may result from carelessness, should be in¬ 
trusted with keeping and applying it. Stry¬ 
chnia is so intensely bitter—one of the bitter¬ 
est of all known substances, that there is 
on this account much less danger from ac¬ 
cidental poisoning by it than there is with 
some other deadly things. Pure Strychnia 
is very little soluble in water ; hence some of 
its salts, usually the sulphate, is employed. 
Mr. James Large, Cherokee Co., Kans., ad¬ 
vises to mix corn meal with water to make a 
dough, add the Strychnia (but does not say 
how much) and bake it to form a corn cake. 
This corn “dodger ” is to be broken into small 
pieces, one of which is put into each Prairie 
Dog’s hole, taking care to roll it well down 
and out of the way of domestic animals. All 
the other correspondents advise the use of 
either soaked corn or wheat to receive the 
poison. Very few give the proportion of 
Strychnia to be used, owing no doubt to the 
fact that the least appreciable quantity kills. 
Mr. Doane, quoted above, is more precise 
than most others. He says, fill an old fruit 
can with soaked corn and add a quarter to half 
a teaspoonful of Strychnia, mixing thorough¬ 
ly, and place eight or ten kernels of this well 
down in the holes. Mr. W. A. Goodyear, 
mining engineer, writes from Connecticut, 
the method in which he has seen Strychnia 
used in California for killing squirrels, and 
which will answer equally well for Prairie 
Dogs. Concentrated Acetic Acid (always to 
be had at drug stores) is poured over the crys¬ 
tals of Strychnia, this reduces them to a fine 
paste, which, when water is added, will dis¬ 
solve. The grain is soaked in this and some 
molasses added to make it more tempting. 
He is not sure of proportions, but thinks that 
for a bushel of wheat (or corn), an ounce of 
Strychnia, four ounces of Acetic Acid and 
just enough water to wet the grain, with a 
quart of molasses, would be about right. We 
have thus given the substance of a long file 
of letters, and we add just one word of our 
own. Be careful with the Strychnia. 
•''' ■ . 
Fig. 1. 
SMUT SPORES. 
Wheat, Oat, and Barley Smut. 
A large number of the members of the 
great Grass Family are more or less affected 
with a group of parasitic plants, which, as a 
whole, are called “The Smuts.” The most 
© |P| familiar, and it may be added, 
the most destructive of these 
fij| lowly organized plants, is the 
one which flourishes upon the 
y? Indian corn, and is widely 
known as Corn Smut. A rather 
full description of this smut, with 
illustrations, was given in the American Agri¬ 
culturist, for November, 1880, to which the 
reader is referred. The Smuts are all much 
alike in their structure, habits of growth, 
methods of propagation, etc., and, in fact, 
can only be distinguished from each other by 
one who is expert with the microscope. 
The Smut, whether it is growing on the 
corn or wheat, barley or rye, is a plant be¬ 
longing to the group, Fungi, the largest, and 
therefore the most 
familiar, members of , 
which are the toad- j \ \ 
stools and mushroom. 
In structure the Smut 
plant is very simple, 
it consisting of fine 
threads or filaments 
too small to be seen 
with the naked eye. 
These threads grow 
within the substance 
of the plant, from 
which they gather the 
nourishment as they 
proceed. Owing to 
the minuteness of the 
Smut plant, it is dif¬ 
ficult to tell just how, 
or in what place, it 
begins its growth. It 
may be that the mi¬ 
nute spores which, 
when in large num¬ 
bers, make the dark 
smutty masses, enter 
the plant from the 
grain with which the 
Fig. 2. spores are planted or Fig. 3. 
wheat sown. It is more prob- barley 
smut. a bi e that they reach 
the corn or other grain plant by being carried 
to it by the wind. When the spores fall upon 
the surface of the leaves or stems, they soon 
germinate and send a thread into the sub¬ 
stance of the plant which is to feed the 
fungus. After growing for a time the Smut 
plant prepares for the continuation of its 
i) 
b 
if. 
kind in the production of a new crop of its 
spores, which serve the same puipose in the 
economy of the parasite that seeds do in the 
higher plants. Some particular part of the 
smut-bearing plant is usually the seat of the 
formation of the spores; the grain is the 
most frequently affected, and for this reason 
the Smut is frequently a source of great loss 
to the crop. There is first an accumulation 
of the fine threads in the young grain, fol¬ 
lowed by its rapid enlarge¬ 
ment. After a while the 
whole of the interior of the 
kernel is made up almost en¬ 
tirely of a black and sticky 
mass of spores. These spores, 
a number of which are 
shown in figure 1, are nearly 
spherical, and covered with 
numerous fine projections 
or spines. A head of wheat 
that has been attacked and 
rendered worthless by Smut 
is shown in figure 2; it is 
drawn from specimens, sent 
by C. M. Youmans, Lyon 
Co., Minnesota. Mr. Y. also 
was much troubled with the 
same pest in his barley fields; 
and from one of his most 
severely affected specimens 
the engraving, figure 3, is 
made. It will be seen that 
in this the form of the grains 
is entirely destroyed, and all 
that remains is an irregular 
mass of purplish-black dust. 
Specimens of Smut upon the 
oat, figure 4, may be gather¬ 
ed in almost any field of this 
grain; the abundance of it 
varying in different localities 
and from year to year. The 
presence of a smutted grain 
in a field is in just so far a 
loss, and if in large quanti¬ 
ties it is a positive evil to 
stock that feed upon it. A preparation is made 
from Smut which is a powerful medicinal 
agent, and is employed in place of Ergot or 
“Spurred Rye,” another parasitic fungus 
which grows upon the rye. This latter is a 
well-known cause of abortion in cows, and a 
similar result may be expected from the vari¬ 
ous Smuts when eaten in large quantities. 
All persons who address us upon the sub¬ 
ject of Smut ask for the remedy or remedies, 
and this is a part of the subject that is very 
difficult to treat. The Smut plant is so small 
in its beginnings, and also so rapid in its 
growth, that its presence is not known upon 
the grain until its destructive work is done. 
If the smut enters the plant from spores 
which cling to, and are sown with, the grain, 
it is to be expected that a thorough cleaning 
of the grain would be a proper precaution. 
The application of any substance that would 
kill the spores and not injure the grain, 
naturally suggests itself. The soaking of the 
grain in a solution of sulphate of copper 
(blue vitriol), followed by an application of 
lime, has proved of value. Precautionary 
measures of this nature are all that seem 
to be within the reach of the farmer. If the 
spores can be kept from finding their way to 
the growing grain the Smut will not appear. 
With com the best way to rid the field of 
Smut is to pass through it and gather and burn 
all the affected ears and stalks. In this way 
