Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1879 — Smut in Grain. [ARTICLE]

Smut in Grain.

Occasionally, and sometimes frequently, one may observe the heads of wheat, oats, barley, rye and tbe ears of corn filled with a black powdery substance, which is generally known as smut. When an ear of grain thus affected is examined, it will be seen that the substance of the grain is changed into this fine black powder, or that the grain is displaced by a puffy, swollen mass of the powder, the latter being more particularly to bq seen in corn. This smut, when viewed under a microscope of high power, is seen to be composed of black round balls, which are so small that 10,000,000 of them would cover no more than one square inch of surface, and 4,000,000 of them are able to occupy the bulk of a single grain of wheat. These minute balls are the spores or seeds of a fungus, a plant which has several intermediate stages of growth, and finally reproduces a new set of the spores. The minute seeds are small enough to float in the atmosphere, to adhere without being noticed to the grains which are sown as seed, or to rest in tho ground until they come in contact with the sprouting seed and infest the growing wheat. Immediately upon contact with a root of wheat the smutspore strikes a filament into the tissue of the plant and infects it as with a poison. The parasite penetrates throughout the tissues of the plant, sometimes, as with corn, bursting out upon the stalk, but generally appearing in full development in the ear or spike when the grain is forming. The cellular tissue of the grain or plant thus infected by the fungus is occupied by a vast number of four-sided cells or cavities, separated by walls, and which are filled with-a mass of very minute adherent granules, perfectly round and at first green, but afterward of a pale reddish brown color; at length the cell-walls the granules separate and appear as £he black—-but really rusty brown — powder which we call the smut. By proper treatment the smut-pores can be made to germinate and grow while under observation, when the process of growth is seen to be, as is usual with all fungoid vegetation, a throwing out of white threads called “ mycelium, and the gradual formation of the brown spores or seeds which we know as smut in the substance of this mycelium. When smut is abundant, crops are either totally ruined or so damaged as to be worth very little. Further, this smut is proved to be injurious to cattle which consume smutty fodder, and it is reasonably believed that much disease originates from the feeding of straw, or com--Stalks infested with smut. Fortunately, we have aa effective remedy within our reach. It has been discovered that caustic alkalies destroy the substance of the smut; and. also, that the application of sulphates of iron, copper and zinc have the same effect; of these latter the sulphate of Copper —the commonly-known blue vitriol—is' the most useful. The usual method of applying these remedies is to steep the seed in a solution of the various substances. The solution may be made as follows, and either the one or the other may be used as found convenient: One pound common salt in one gallon of water. One pound glauber salt#" in one gallon of water. Four ounces sulphate of copper in one gallon of water. Sufficient of the solution should be made to saturate the seed, or thoroughly moisten every grain. When the seed has steeped for two hours it is drained and spread upon a floor and sprinkled with dry lime in powder; that which has been air-slacked, by exposure to the atmosphere in a covered shed, until it falls to a fine dust, is best fitted for this use. The seed is then shoveled and stirred until each grain has been coated wjth the lime. In an hour or two it will be dry and may be sown. There are at least fifteen species of the smut fungus known to botanists. The genus is known as Uredo by some, ana'as Ustilago by. others. The species which attacks wheat is known as Uredo segetum, or the wheat smut; that of corn as Uredo maydis, the maize-smut. Other species inlest oats, barley, rye, grasses, sedges, and reeds (or marsh grasses, so-called), and other plants. One infests the wild onion, aud the same attacks the onions grown in gardens. The grasses most infested are orchard grass ( Dactylxs glomerala), and some varieties of Poa, more especia l ly Poa aguatica and Poa. fluilans; but the cultivated species of this genus, or Kentuckj blue grass, Poa prate.nxis, or Port, compressa, the' June grass or sp«£r grass of our fields, are not often attacked. Thorp arc other fungoid parasites which attack wheat. These are mildew, rust and bunt, tho last being a species of smut known by the naqae of Joetida, or stinking smut or bunt, from its foul smell. The first and second are well known; the last is not so frequent, but is sometimes found in ripe grain, which, when ground in tho mill ori crushed in the fingers, appears as a mass of black dust of disagreeable scent. All these are subject to the same treatment as for the prevention of smut. Steeping is a sure remedy, and any farmer who neglects to avail himself of so simple a help should certainly refrain from complaint if he finds himself* a sufferer. “ Wisdom is a defense,” and if we are wise we shall defend ourselves against this enemy, and use our. influence to prevail upon neighbors ~t& do the same. This and other evils are spread by the neglect of a few, or even of one, to use remedies, and the failure of one will lead to the stocking of the land of a hundred others, who may then justly complain of the injury.— N. Y. Times. A young girl asked her mother's consent to engage- Herself to her beau, showing her at the same time a piece of her own handiwork, a pretty matchsafe..- Her .mother drew down her spectacles and exclaimed:"" “ Mary, you can make a match-safe, but I havo my doubts whether you would mate a safe match.” Mary sighed involuntarily, and sought consolation in singing “ The Heart Bowed Down.”