| OCR Text |
Show THE SMUT OF GRAIN. I J sB'Prof. E. H. Favor, State Agricul- tural College. The smuts of oats, wheat a,nd other grain crops are of such frequent occurence oc-curence as to be very familiar to the farmers of Utah. These smuts arc caused by a. fungus which lives within the stems of the grain and when they reach maturity cause the character- j istic smutty heads. These- loose, 3 black powdery or sooty masses arc fj made up of extremely small particles L of spores, each one of which is ca- J ipablc, under suitable conditions, of infecting another plant. These spores have the same' function as seeds, that J is they can germinate and grow info ? a new plant. ! The botanists recognize scvcril I kinds of these smut fungi all of which fij arc parasitic upon green plants. Many i kinds of plants arc attacked by then a i lJ and in some instance imtncnsc dam- u' age is done to grain fields by the 'j rapid spread of smut which destroys j more or less completely the grain or seed of -every stem infected. Oals and wheat arc particularly succptibh: to hcsc diseases. At about the time the grain is ripening the smutty heads become loose and powdery. During the harvesting and threshing of the grain' the spores of the smut becomes scattered through the soil, the stra.v and seed. Every spore of the fungm ; which falls where warmth and mois- turc conditions arc right-, will germinate. ger-minate. Since the seeds are covered with I the smut spores at time of threshing, the spores arc carried on the seeds and planted in the field for next year'., crop. The conditions suitable for the j germination of the wheat or oat seed is also proper for the germination of the smut spores. Just at the time the j ont or wheat reed is sprouting; while j the tip of the young plant is in its j most tender condition the smut par- asitc gains entrance. As the grain J grows the parasite grows with it, and j there is no indication in the stalk or leaves of the host that it is harboring a dangerous enemy, excepting that the affected stems are usually more dwia.rf than the rest. ' A't the time the grain begins to ma- turc its s'ecd spike the parasite makes a rapid growth in the young, seeds. They become swollen and distorted, the tissue of the soeds is consumed by the fungus and -eventually is converted con-verted into the characteristic smut. Of these .smuts, those parasitic on cultivated crops arc frequently very destructive and reduce the yield of the grain. But there arc instances in which the fungus mr.y be beneficial to man. For example, the pestiferous fox-tail grass is frequently attacked and its annual crop of seeds consequently conse-quently reduced. But unfortunately in his instance the amount of injury is scarcely noticeable the next year. The smut of grain can easily be prevented. pre-vented. The simplest method is to sprinkle the seed with a solution of formalin of the strength of one pound' formalin to fifty gallons of water until the seeds arc nearly moist enough to pack in the hand. The seed should then be shaken about or t shoveled over into a pile and covered with isacks. After a couple of hours or more the seed is ready to sow, or they may be spread out and dried 'i and kept for future sowing. Formalin is a gas disolvcd in wat er, and' the reason for covering the ; seed is to keep the gas confined and 1 ... give it time to penetrate between the chaff of the grain and thus reach 1 - .. .. .- - every spore of the fungus and kill it. After, the spores of the fungus are killed it matters not whether the seed is sown at once or dried and sown at a later time, but if kept for later sowing sow-ing the seed must be stored in sacks or bins which arc known to be free from smut spores. Otherwise there will be no appreciable value in the formalin treatment. |
