8 
in nutrient substrata of all sorts, might actually produce the smut 
diseases in the host plants ; however convincing the experience of hus¬ 
bandmen on the relations of fresh dung to the appearance of smut 
diseases in grain,—the described results of artificial cultivation being 
also consonant—these alone do not amount to conclusive proof, but 
remain probabilities with which we can not be satisfied. The new 
investigations of smut fungi, which began with the cultivation of the 
parasites outside of the host plants and which with the results here attained 
are half exhausted , will not be conclusive and exhaustive for the ceti- 
ology of smut diseases until the supplementary half is appended , until 
through various and rationally conducted infection experiments it is actually 
shown in what way and under what circumstances the richly multiplied 
germs living saprophytically outside of the host plants attach the latter and 
produce the smut diseases , how and in what places the germs penetrate into 
the host plants, and how within these, widely diverging from the transfor¬ 
mations outside of the host plants, they are changed into smut spores. 
And now, for these infection experiments, the easy maintenance of 
smut fungi in any sort of nutrient solution and the subsequent end¬ 
less increase of their germs, offered an inexhaustable source for the 
production, at will, of an infective material no less fresh and vigor¬ 
ous than capable of attack—a material, immediately and easily availa¬ 
ble in all possible variations, never before used, and admirably adapted 
for the artificial production of smut diseases in the host plants. 
{To he continued.) 
ON THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN FUNGICIDES UPON THE VITALITY 
OF SEEDS. 
A. A. Crozier. 
The influence of various chemicals upon the germination of seeds is 
but little understood. Many which have a fertilizing effect when ap¬ 
plied in small amounts to the growing plant are injurious when a strong 
solution is applied to the seed. -There is evidence, on the other hand, 
that many substances when applied to the seed will hasten germination 
and increase the vigor of the young plants. An account of some of 
these is given by Prof. L. H. Bailey, in Bulletin 31 of the Michigan Ag¬ 
ricultural College. 
The following experiments were made with blue vitriol and copperas 
at the Iowa Experiment Station in 1889: 
First, a rough test was made with a strong solution of blue vitriol, a 
teaspoonful in half a saucer of water. Corn was soaked in this twenty- 
four hours, and another lot soaked in pure water the same length of 
time, and both lots planted in soil in the greenhouse May 11. Exami¬ 
nation was made daily with the following results, the figures showing 
