STINKING SMUT OF WHEAT. 
(Tilletia foeteis .) 
Stinking smut is a fungus which destroys the kernel of 
the wheat. This disease lives over winter in the form of 
spores which are microscopic in size, black in color, and 
globular in form. The interior of the kernel is frequently 
completely filled with a mass of these spores and when the 
outer coating is broken, as is often the case, the spores are 
set free and many of them lodge on the healthy grains and 
are held by the minute hairs which occur on .the kernels at 
the end opposite the point of attachment. 
The spores can live through very unfavorable condi¬ 
tions and they germinate under the same conditions as the 
wheat. The smut spores begin their attack as soon as the 
wheat grains have sprouted. The germ tubes enter the 
young wheat plant where they appropriate nourishment for 
the development of the smut plants. From this time on the 
two plants grow up together, the smut growing in the inter¬ 
ior of the wheat stalk. 
When the wheat stalk heads out and the kernels begin 
to form, the smut attacks them and absorbs the nutritive 
substance from the kernel. The smut then forms its seed¬ 
like spores which live over winter, and are produced only 
in the interior of the kernels, the glumes surrounding the 
kernel being unharmed. This is why smutted grain often 
looks healthy and well developed, but sometimes these 
glumes surrounding the kernel break away at the top and 
spread out, thus giving the head of wheat a ragged appear¬ 
ance. It may not be noticed that the grain contains smut 
until the shell of the kernel is broken and the smut spores 
are set free. Diseased kernels can usually be told, however, 
in that they are somewhat swollen and darker in color. It 
is known that one smutted kernel contains many thousand 
spores. When the grain is threshed the spores are scat¬ 
tered all through the grain and a crop that has but little 
smut one year may be nearly all smut the next year. Some 
grain with smut spores may fall on the ground and come up 
the second year as volunteer grain; this is the reason why 
we have smut when clean seed is planted if the same ground 
is seeded to wheat. 
There are two kinds of smut, the Stinking Smut and 
Loose Smut. "The Loose Smut obtains its name from the 
