Smut

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Important: Safety Warning This page recommends pest-control substances such as arsenic compounds, strychnine, or cyanide — in some cases applied to food crops. These substances are lethal to humans and animals, and their use is now banned or strictly controlled. In addition, this page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes. This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon. any one of several parasitic plants growing on corn and other field crops. Smut is akin to rust, and is included in the general class of fungi or leafless, flowerless plants feeding on organic matter. The threads of smut run like the threads of mold through blade or tassel or ear in an immense tangle until they are ready to produce their black dust spores. As each particle of the black dust is capable of producing a smut plant a year later, the marvel is not that an occasional stalk is infested, but rather that we have any corn at all. Onions, wheat, oats, rye, etc., each has its particular smut. Cows turned loose in a cornfield sometimes die unaccountably. Formerly the loss was charged to smut. Experiments carried on at agricultural stations disprove this theory. Smut has been mixed with food in large amounts without injury to the animals. Smut is usually in the seed when planted. Experts advise treating seed grain with formaldehyde to kill the spores. One pound of formaldehyde, forty per cent pure, may be added to forty-five gallons of water. This is sufficient for one hundred bushels of grain. The grain should be spread out on the floor of a bin. The liquid may be applied in a spray or from a watering pot. The grain should be turned repeatedly with a shovel that all the kernels may be moistened.