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Show Suit tn Oat Fields. Wherever smut exists In oats the financial loss to the farmers Is Tery great, though this fact is not usually appreciated. The Department of Agronomy ol the Illinois College of Agriculture is making a special effort this year to ascertain the losses In Illinois oat fields due to smut The loss last year was estimated at $2,250.-000. $2,250.-000. Those of our readers who will help In this work should send to the University at Urbana for a circular giving instructions how to make the estimates. Among other things th Instructions contain the following, which will be of interest to all our readers: In order to determine the per cent of smutted heads take ah ordinary barrel hoop or light frame of any kind of convenient size and throw over a spot in the field, selected at random. Count all of the stalks inside in-side the hoop and note the number on the blank given on last page of this paper. Now count the stalks affected by smut and set down In the proper column of the same blank. Repeat this operation in three or more places In every field in order to get an average of smutted stalks for the field. . Caution. Care should be taken that nnno nf fha emllttet Btjllks rn nnssnri by unnoticed. , 1. The smutted stalks are usually shorter than the healthy ones, and consequently are overlooked in counting. count-ing. - 2. The smutted heads do not always push out of the sheath and these stalks are counted as merely dwarfed plants, when if the sheath is unrolled the head will be found to be smutted. 3. The smut appears early, and by the time the oats are ripe has been mostly whipped off by the wind, in many Instances leaving only a bare i stalk or stub. The so-called blighting of oats is generally, caused Jay, smut, although the smut may have disappeared en- I tirely. |