



Total Smutted |Per ct. 
panicles. | panicles.|of smut 



hp SIS SORT SS DR tee A 290.50 | 17.50 5.95 
TE A spc e iach oA, 310.80 | 29.90 9.82 
te TBS ie i ea aa a ea Fa ie | 263.50 | 20.70 771 
i aes Maen 225.30 | 23.40 | 10.28 


ooo 

iste, Aeoracc avery! Os nti 6879 8Oh4| 92.87 8.48 
The totals of the four plats show that, of 10,901 panicles, 
growing under ordinary conditions in the field, 915 or 8.48 
per cent. were destroyed by smut. This field would have 
appeared very free of smut to the ordinary observer, yet 
the figures indicate a considerable loss. Dryness of soil 
seemed to have no special bearing in the matter of percent- 
age of smut, as both the smallest and greatest amounts 
occurred in parts of the field more elevated and drier than 
the others. The results of the examinations made by Prof. 
J. OC. Arthu.! in 1884, are compared below with those 
above recorded, and as will be noted; the variation is not 
great. 







Variety. No. panicles. Per cent. smutted. 
1884|White Australian. ........ 7,623 | 9.87 
issone* PRassian 0.0 00.. 10,901 8.48 


The Station experience is, that White Australian smuts 
worse than White Russian, hence a higher percentage was 
to be expected. However, were equal numbers of panicles 
counted in each case, it is possible that the percentages 
might have been brought into closer relations. 
The interesting question here arises, is smut transmitted 
to the successive crops as produced each year, and if so, 
what means can be taken to prevent the propagation of this 
vegetable parasite ? 
In 1885, while visiting a large grain farm in Seneca 
county, my attention was called to a field of American 
Triumph oats, embracing several acres, so devasted by smut 
as to ruin a goodly portion of the crop. The field was har- 
vested, and from the crop, enough seed was secured for the 
Station to carry on the following experiments. Four plats 
were planted, being as widely separated as distance on the 
Station land would allow. Plat A was situated in the ex- 
perimental plats, on the north-east side; plat B in a south- 
east exposure, on the opposite. side of the farm; plat C, on 
the very south side of the grounds, and plat D in the north- 
west corner, all on a 125 acre farm. The seed of all the 
plats was untreated, and planted as received from Seneca 
1Third Annual Rep’t N. Y. Ag’l Ex. Station, 1884, p. 382. 


