Cleaned, Treated and Tested Seed 
27 
2. Grain must not be left covered for more than 12 hours, 
while 6 hours is desirable; the grain must be dried thoroughly if 
it is to be stored any length of time. 
3. The formalin solution does not lose strength with age, but 
rather increases in strength; the water evaporates before the gas. 
4. Wetted grain should not be exposed to frost, because it in¬ 
jures seriously the germination. 
5. The formalin purchased must be of guaranteed 40 per cent 
strength. Make tlie solution according to directions. Thoroughly 
mix the grain and solution. 
6. Grain treated with formalin solution mav be fed to stock; 
the formalin leaves no poisonous substance upon evaporation. 
7. Treated grain may be kept indefinitely so long as pro¬ 
tected from further contamination. 
8. It is urgently recommended that farmers treat enough grain 
to furnish clean seed for the following year, if they are not in 
a position to treat seed for the whole of their acreage. When this is 
done, treated seed should always be sown by itself to give the best 
results, and no other grain should be mixed with it in harvesting. 
Loose Smut. This smut is caused by a fungus distinct from the 
one just described. It is not present in large amounts in Colorado 
wheat. It is earlier than stinking smut and differs in the total 
disapnearance of the smutted berries and chaff. At harvest time 
only barren stalks of smutted plants remain, the spores having been 
disseminated before maturity. The spores come in contact with other 
heads of grain while they are flowering and infection of the seed 
is the result. From such an infected seed a smutted plant will de- 
A-elop the following year, although from all external evidence of the 
seed no one could tell that it bears the smut fungus embedded in the 
seed. Loose smut is therefore carried over within the seed, not on the 
outside as in the case of stinking smut. 
Control: The object of seed treatment is to kill the smut fun- 
ivus within the grain, but produce no injury to the grain itself. The 
formalin treatment is of no account here as it does not reach the 
interior of the grain. A method of cold and hot water treatment 
mav be used to destroy the smut fungus within the seed However, 
it is advisable, in view of the relatively small amounts of loose smut 
in Colorado wheats, to purchase seed known to be free from the dis¬ 
ease. If this cannot be done, then the use of the hot water method 
is imperative. This method is as follows: 
Hot Water Treatment for Tjoose Smut of Wheat: 
1. Secure a reliable thermometer and large wooden barrel or any 
kind of metal tank or vat. 
