and rust resistant strains and varieties 
that derive their smut resistance from 
Victoria, were likewise susceptible. Among 
these were all Stanton strains and Letoria, 
Lelina, Lelate, Lega, DeSota, Fultex, and 
most Victorgrain strains ; however, Victor- 
grains 42-3 and 42-5 (that are in 10-acre 
increase) and Fulgrain 4 and _ strains 
descended therefrom, showed the highest 
degree of resistance. 
VICTORGRAIN SMUT SHOWS UP IN 
SPRING OF 1943 
This year, for the first time, an appar- 
ently new race has appeared to which 
Victorgrain Strains 1, 2 and 3 are suscep- 
tible. We were inclined to believe at first 
that this was Avena-30—as the strains of 
Fulgrain and Victorgrain that Dr. Reed 
designated as susceptible, showed smut, 
and all but one of those that he reported 
as resistant, showed no smut—were it 
not for the fact that all Stanton strains 

NW 
Ui es 
to this particular race of smut, while two rows on 
left seriously affected. 
so far show absolute freedom from smut 
and all of these were highly susceptible 
to Avena-30. 
This discovery would have left us in a 
serious predicament had not Dr. Reed 
come to our aid. Immediately on finding 
the prevalence of this smut in Victor- 
grain, we collected inoculum and _ for- 
warded to him dehulled seed of all our oat 
strains, with the request that he make an 
outdoor planting using the inoculum that 
we had forwarded in one test, and a dupli- 
cate test using Avena-30. He kindly con- 
sented to do this, and in the meantime, 
we will save all promising strains and 
await his report on these tests before final 
selections are made. Those strains will be 
favored that show uniformly high 
resistance. 
CERESAN TREATMENT ESSENTIAL RE- 
GARDLESS OF PREVIOUS RECORD OF 
SMUT RESISTANCE 
We will continue to breed for resistance 
to all races of smut in our usual thorough 
manner but in light of these recent dis- 
coveries, we feel that, regardless of past 
history and experience, it is too hazardous 
to use planting seed, regardless of variety, 
without first treating for smut control. 
Consequently, we are going to treat all 
planting seed offered this year with 
Ceresan. This includes Victorgrain Strain 
3, Fulgrain Strain 6 and Stanton Strain 1, 
even though Fulgrain Strain 6 has shown 
no susceptibility to any race and no smut 
infected plants have so far been found in 
any of our Stanton increase fields. We 
want to urge that our friends and custom- 
ers do likewise, and so advise this neces- 
sary precaution to all growers or sellers of 
oats to be used for planting purposes. 
The benefits derived from Ceresan treat- 
ment, other than smut control, far exceed 
the small cost. 
VICTORGRAIN SMUT LOSS THIS 
YEAR NEGLIGIBLE 
We wanted to advise our customers 
promptly of this new race. While all pos- 
sible loss from smut in Victorgrain this 
year is negligible, if the seed grown from 
this crop were planted this next year with- 
out first treating for smut control, the loss 
might be serious—and this so unnecessary 
and easily averted. 
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