NEW OAT SMUTS A 
SERIOUS PROBLEM 
By GEORGE J. WILDS 
President 
Discovery of New Races Which Affect 
Many Standard Smut Resistant Varieties 
Complicate Breeders’ Problems and Make 
Ceresan Treatment of All Oat Varieties 
Advisable Regardless of Previous Record 
of Smut Resistance 
Breeding for smut resistance is a most 
vexing, complex, and hazardous under- 
taking. A variety may be resistant to all 
known races, then along comes a new race 
that infects it as badly as if it had not 
been bred for smut resistance. While we 
are crossing and breeding for smut resist- 
ance, the smuts are doing likewise in an 
apparent effort to tear down that which we 
have so laboriously and _ painstakingly 
built up. 
Our Fulgrain Strains 1, 2 and 3 were 
highly resistant to all known races of smut 
in the United States. Tests were made at 
seventeen widely scattered Experiment 
Stations, sixteen of these in the United 
States and one in Canada. Each experi- 
menter used the race or races that were 
prevalent in his section, and only in Madi- 
son, Wisconsin, was there any infection, 
and that less than six percent. 
FULGRAIN SMUT DISCOVERED 
In 1938 smut appeared in a Fulgrain 
field near Leesville, South Carolina. It was 
reported by Mr. Harold Epting. We in- 
vestigated and found that it was pure 
Fulgrain and smutting badly. We collected 
a large amount of this smut, and since 
that time, have been planting three sepa- 
rate smut inoculation tests, in one using 
the Fulghum race, in another Red Rust 
Proof or Appler, and in the third using 
the Fulgrain race. We found all Fulgrain 
strains prior to Strain 4 highly susceptible 
to this Fulgrain race, as well as Coker 
33-50, all Red Rust Proof strains, and 
the three recently bred rust and smut 
resistant Texas oats, Rustler, Ranger and 
Rangler. 

VIRULENT NEW RACE DEVELOPS IN 
OKLAHOMA 
r. Stanton, Senior Agronomist in 
Charge of U. 8. D. A. Oat Investigations, 
while on an inspection tour in Oklahoma, 
made a collection of smut out of a Ful- 
ghum field. This was forwarded to Dr. 
Geo. M. Reed, Curator, Brooklyn Botanic 
Garden, a world authority on smut. He 
tested a large number of varieties and 
strains with this new race and we oat 
breeders found, to our great disappoint- 
ment, that many hitherto highly resistant 
varieties were susceptible to this particu- 
lar race, which he designates Avena-30. 
NEW OAT STRAINS MAY HAVE RESIST- 
ANCE TO NEW SMUTS 
The most serious setback was received 
when Dr. Reed discovered that Victoria— 
which had been considered smut immune— 
was highly susceptible to this new race; 
furthermore, that all the new highly smut 
S ee rans pte 
Illustrating our method of testing for smut resistance. 
Four rows are sister strains—two rows on right resistant 
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