86 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Fes., 1902. 
hundredth meridian. Already great results have been obtained, the yield in 
South Dakota being at the rate of from 35 to 40 bushels per acre, which is one- 
third more per acre than the average yield of the regular wheat from this 
section. Macaroni wheat differs radically from the ordinary bread wheats. 
The grain is much harder, and in the best varieties contains an unusual amount 
of starch. The quantity and quality of the gluten make it exceedingly valuable 
for making macaroni. 
There is no doubt that such wheat as described above would prove a great 
boon to wheatgrowers in the Central districts, where the rainfall cannot always be 
depended upon to occur at the right time, provided that there were a certain 
market for it. Russia and the United States could probably furnish the 
demands of the world for this class of wheat. 
RED WHEATS. 
Wheat exporters to the British markets know that white wheat is not so 
valuable as red by from 1s. to 2s. per quarter. Why is this? It is explained 
by an American farmer, who says that the former wheats have a thick bran, 
are of a fibrous nature, and do not yield so much flour as red by 15 to20 percent. 
The flour, moreover, is of an inferior quality as regards colour, strength, and 
flavour. It is also a fallacy to think that white wheat yields more per acre than 
red wheat. The very opposite is the case. If farmers would drill good red 
wheat of, say, the “square head” and leave alone those fancy “stand up” 
kinds, they would certainly find it more profitable. We should like to have a 
Queensland farmer’s opinion on the subject. 
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BUNT AND SMUT. 
In the course of a report on the grain experiments carried out at the 
Cheshire County Council’s Agricultural and Horticultural School, Holmes 
Chapel, during the year 1901, Mr. Edrie Druce, M.R.A.C., remarks that there 
is a certain amount of confusion between bunt and smut, and he therefore 
gives a brief description of both diseases, which we reproduce :— 
Bunt (TZilletia caries), locally known as “Smut,” is a fungoid disease, 
which attacks wheat and barley, but seldom oats and rye. Its effects are not 
seen till harvest time, when it is found that apparently healthy ears of corn 
contain only grain filled with a greasy, foul-smelling mass of black spores. The 
only outward difference between a healthy and a diseased grain is that the 
affected grain is plumper and generally darker in colour than the healthy grain. 
The presence of bunted grains in a sample of wheat greatly deteriorates the 
quality, as it blackens the whole bulk, an the flour from such can only be used 
for inferior purposes. . 
Smut (Ustilago carbo), locally known as “ Black Strike,” is also a fungoid 
disease, which attacks wheat, oats, barley, rye, and some grasses. The disease 
appears in June and July, when it is seen that certain ears of corn are covered 
with a dark powder. If such ears are examined it will be noticed that the 
floral organs and their coverings are destroyed and replaced by a mass of dark 
chocolate-coloured powder, which consists of innumerable spores. The spores 
of the disease become blown away before harvest time, and many of them 
settle on the healthy grains and remain there till seed time, when the disease 
is again produced. The result of smut in grain is a greatly diminished yield. 
Both bunt and smut are reproduced year after year by the very minute 
spores adhering to the grains of corn, and these grow along with the seed when 
itis sown. The result of pickling is that it leaves a film of copper sulphate on 
