OCR Text |
Show Increased Profits From Smut Control Disease Reduces Crop Yield and Market Prices. Thousands of farmers know that wheat smut reduces yields and sometimes some-times the selling price of wheat, and have learned through their county agents how to control this disease by treating the seed before planting. The copper carbonate dusting method is now generally used for killing sucking suck-ing smut In wheat because It Is the simplest, cheapest, and the most effective ef-fective method known. The seed should be placed in a tight container, such as a barrel, churn, or box, provided with a tight-fitting opening, open-ing, and arranged so that It can be revolved re-volved on an axis. Two or three ounces of copper carbonate per bushel Is sprinkled on the wheat and the container con-tainer then revolved so that every seed gets coated. It is best to wear a mask of eloth over the mouth and nose to prevent Irritation or nausea. Stinking smut changes the grain In. to masses or spores called smut balls. Since the chaff is not destroyed the disease Is not easily observed, except for the odor. E. A. Miller, agronomist in the Texas agricultural mechanical college extension service, warns farmers farm-ers that seed from fields that were entirely free from smnt last season may develop the disease next year unless the seed are treated. The rea son for this lies In the fact that the smut spores are given wide distribution distribu-tion through threshing machines. The copper carbonate treatment is recommended only for stinking smut of wheat and kernel smut of grain sorghums and sweet sorghums. For oat and barley smut the formaldehyde treatment should be used. |