Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1917 — County Agent Notes. [ARTICLE]

County Agent Notes.

The Jasper County Better Farming Association has completed the checking up of the results of the oat smut demonstrations started by its members last spring. This work has been in charge of County Agent Learning and F. J. Pipal, of the plant pathology department of the Purdue experiment station. Thirty-two farmers in different parts of the county were used as demonstrators. Most of them treated their seed oats with a formaldehyde last spring, leaving untreated check plots on their farms for comparison. A few treated all their seed arid others did not treat any. The results show that the 32 farmers seeded 1,466 acres of oats. The average per cent of smut on the treated plots was .23 per cent, while the .average per cent on the check plots was 6.6 per cent. Many of the farms showed less than .001 per cent of smut in the treated plots and wherever the percentage ran as high at . 1 per cent it was invariably found that bulk formaldehyde had been purchased by the farmer. The demonstration increased their yields of oats an average of 93 bushels per farm by the use of the formaldehyde treatment. The average cost of material was less than one dollar per farm and the labor expended was slight. The figures indicate that the use of the treatment On all seed oats in the county would have increased the production this year by about 1 §B,OOO bushels, value dat over SIIO,OOO. Many demonstrators also increased vigor of treated plants due to the fact that other diseases aside from the smuts were arrested. In speaking of the matter Mr. Pipal said: “The osses from smut in northern Indiana are below the average this year. While there was a loss of 5.5 per cent, the average annual loss is about 14. I have just come from Monroe county, where the loss ran as high as 34 per cent in many fields.” The Association made no attempt to carry out a campaign to induce all farmers to treat theii; seed oats last spring. These demonstrations were carried on with the idea of securing data which could be used in a countywide project of oats smut control to be taken up next winter. County Agent Learning! reports that enough material has been obtained from the trials this year to prove convincing to anyone who will study it and expects that in a few years the practice of treating all small grain seed will become general.