Show FARMERS FACTS bluestone Blu nia estone a are cure of smut on ivle nt the contra costa cal gazotti says in reference to a recent article b by dr schultz denying the value of bluest blue stoning ning wheat to prevent smut every farmer in this vicinity from 1852 to 1856 well remembers how things went from bad to worse in the way of wheat growing to smut various old time rem remedies edies lime brine urine ash lye copperas sulphate of f iron and others were tried without effect until the efficiency of the bluestone solution treatment waa was shown by the crop of thomas flournoy at danville in 1856 As has been before stated in in these columns the example of mr flour noys sound crop that sc season itson in in cited all farmers of the neighborhood though they paid from thirty cents to one dollar a pound for the material to apply bluestone treatment to seed in no in instance when properly applied was there failure in raising a sound wheat crop it was then the practice to soak the seed in solution over night which gave the solution time to penetrate through smut grain sacks and kill t the bege germ r m olevery of every oneo one of fits its millions f pare atoms atom as well as all those ad adhering h ering to th the exterior of the sound grains F for or a number of years the modes of application and results of blue stoning were subjects on which our farmers were greatly interested in comparing notes of observations and nd experience an and d in those first years of its use almost every farmer set apart a little corner or strip of land for seeding with wheat that had not been blue stoned and we remember no instance reported in which the crop from such seeding was not smut affected while that from blue stoned seed was sound wo we well remember an instance in 1857 where the effect of the bluestone seed soaking was somewhat strikingly exemplified in contrast with the results of neglecting neglecting the soaking it should be kemem remembered ered that it was very difficult then to obtain seed wheat that was free from smut in the instance referred to a valley bottom some yards in length by a uniform breadth of about yards was discovered when the wheat was approaching maturity to be marked in regular recurrence with transverse smutty streaks its entire breadth for two thirds its length while between these streaks were broader belts of sound wheat unaffected with smut the regular recurrence of the sound and smutty belts were found in relative correspondence as to breadth measure in the pro proportion on of about four acres of sound wheat and two acres acre of smutty aud was acco accounted tinted for in this who an iron cauldron cauldren caul dron had been used for the solution in which the seed was soaked it would hold enough of the solution renewed from day to day lay to cover when swollen four sacks of seed and for the first few days sowing on the strip four sacks were put to soak each evening taken out drained and sowed bowed the following day the mie weather waa was favorable the season well advanced and the renter oatlie of the land being anxious to finish the seeding reeding then crowded the capacity of the cauldron cauldren caul dron by putting six sacks in every evening the upper one third of zif which by the swelling of that below was wits crowded out of the liquid with on only y a surface wetting insufficient to soak through the smut sacks and destroy the germs of the sporadic smut atoms contained in them thus from every cauldron cauldren caul dron came about two sacks of seeds conta containing i ning many dry smut pouches bable to be broken in rough encounter with clods and harrow and tho the still vital germs scattered in contact with the seed grain rain or lodged with the feeders of the growing rowing plant anitz mi t absorb the mimic at mic disease germ such at least is a theory consistent with observation and scientific facts so far as they have been demonstrated it is a the theory ory too that accounts for most of the reported exceptional failures in application of the sulphate of copper seed treatment as a smut preventive the failures indeed in in nearly or all cases are the result of care negligence gence or the use of an inferior quality of bluestone and it would prove a great disaster should may many ty of the wheat growers of the state be persuaded by Dr Schultz to abandon the bluestone treatment of rf their seed wheat that the almost universal experience of more than twenty five years has hal proved to be fo 60 effective as a smut preventive |