REPORT OF THE BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT.

A large amount of work has been carried on in the Botanical Department of the Station during the year 1891, chiefly of a physiological and pathological nature. The economic value of some of the conclusions arrived at is of more than usual importance, while nearly all of the work has well repaid the labor and thought expended upon it. In attempting to secure information that may be readily applied by the cultivator to increase the profits of his business, the opportunity has not been lost to investigate a number of problems of scientific moment which underlie the more obvious economic questions, and serve to place the latter upon a much firmer basis.

CORN.

The experiment conducted in 1889 and set forth in the Annual Report for 1890 upon the relation of the weight of the kernel to the after growth and yield, was repeated during the year. The results fully confirm the previous conclusions, and show that the larger kernels produce a stronger growth and heavier yield. As the kernels on an ear are heaviest at the butt and decrease in weight toward the tip, the butt kernels are the most valuable for planting, and the kernels on the remainder of the ear are somewhat less valuable in proportion as they are situated farther from the butt.

The high efficiency of the hot water treatment of the seed of wheat and oats in preventing smut in those cereals, suggested the trial of the same means of removing smut from corn. Corn smut is very prevalent and causes much injury to the crop in this State, and it being a leading farm product, a preventive for the smut is highly desirable. The hot water treatment carried out essentially as for oats and wheat, was

tested on rather a large scale, two fields at some distance apart being used. Quite contrary to what was anticipated, the result showed no diminution in the amount of smut that could be ascribed to the treatment. The range of temperature was extended to the limits of the vitality of the seed corn, and we are therefore forced to acknowledge that there is no prospect that the hot water treatment will be found serviceable in preventing corn smut.

In order to learn whether the smut of corn comes from planting infected seed or not, an attempt was made to artificially infect the plant by applying a large amount of smut powder to the seed at the time of planting. With oats and wheat this is a very efficient method to increase the percentage of smut in the crop. The smut was applied to the kernels of corn moistened with flour paste in order to make it adhere well. The results gave no indication that the plants had received infection from this source, in fact the rows in which kernels were coated with smut showed scarcely as much smut in the plants as the rows which received no application.

OATS.

The hot water treatment for the prevention of smut in oats has been further tested, and the favorable conclusions of previous years confirmed. A bulletin (No. 35), embracing a large amount of data, and giving the mode of procedure in the practical application of the method in farm practice, was issued in March, 1891. The use of this means of ridding oats of smut must result in preventing a heavy loss to the farming community. It has already been adopted by many farmers of the State, and there is indication that its use will soon become general.

A fact, which first came out incidentally during the treatment for smut, but which has since assumed most important proportions, is the gain in yield which oats (and also wheat). show, entirely due to the warm bath given the grain before sowing. This increased yield, believed to amount to at least ten per cent., averaging one season with another, has led the Department to recommend this method as a profitable one for increasing the yield of oats.

WHEAT.

The hot water method has been applied to the prevention of stinking or hard smut of wheat with complete success. The temperature of the water, and other details of treatment, were given in Bulletin No. 32 (1890), but at that time the efficiency in preventing the smut had not been fully demonstrated. During 1891 the results obtained from field experiments have left no doubt that the method is thoroughly satisfactory, and with only ordinary care is capable of preventing all appearance of smut in the

crop.

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The above remarks refer to stinking smut only. Loose smut of wheat, which closely resembles the common smut of oats, and which was very abundant this last year, 1891, throughout the State, attracting general attention about the time wheat was in flower, reacts very differently toward the hot water treatment from what stinking smut does. The closing sentence of Bulletin No. 32 (July, 1890), reads as follows: prevention of loose smut of wheat has not been made the subiect of experiment, but it is presumable that the treatment (with hot water), recommended above for stinking smut will be found satisfactory." The data from field tests for the present year, however, do not at all bear out this assumption. In fact, the trials in which the seeds were immersed in water at 135° F., for five minutes, show that the treatment has no effect whatever in reducing the percentage of loose smut. We are consequently forced to admit that while the hot water treatment is highly satisfactory in eradicating stinking smut, it is of no service against loose smut.

An important fungous injury to wheat in the field, known as scab, was detected in the fields of the Station and elsewhere in the State during the last season. It affects the heads and shows most prominently just before ripening sets in. The loss amounted to fifteen per cent. of the crop in some fields. The matter has been made the subject of a bulletin article (No. 36, August, 1891), and will also receive further attention.

The use of seed grain having various degrees of maturity was tested in a preliminary experiment, but the results are not sufficiently complete to hazard any general conclusion.

POTATOES.

The work with potatoes has received more attention than has been given in any other one direction, and the results have been of great interest and importance. Many of the experiments performed in 1890 have been repeated during the last year, and others added. Some of the results have been embodied in a paper entitled "A Physiological Basis for the Comparison of Potato Production," read before the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, and published in the proceedings for 1891. The remainder and larger part of the data has not yet been placed before the public.

Some of the conclusions of this work are that the larger the potatoes, or pieces of potatoes, that are planted, the larger the yield; that the seed (apical) end of the tuber gives the strongest shoots and is the best part of the tuber for planting; that rough potatoes contain more starch and are better for planting than smooth potatoes of the same variety; that the number of eyes on a piece bears no important relation to the yield, care should, therefore, be exercised as to the size of the piece planted, rather than to the number of eyes; that cut tubers are better than whole ones, because they take up water from the soil more readily and permit more rapid growth; and that the seed material will be improved by drying somewhat before planting, provided the loss in weight does not exceed 20 per cent. Other important results have been secured which can not well be presented in the brief space at command in this outline.

The seab organism, discovered by Dr. Thaxter in Connecticut, has been detected during the year, and is believed to be common in this State and an efficient cause of more or less of the scab of potatoes, especially in its worst form. The organism has been, and is still, under cultivation in the laboratory.

BEETS.

Very considerable attention has been given to the diseases of sugar beets. This work has been principally carried on by Miss Katherine E. Golden, who read a paper upon the subject in December last before the Indiana Academy of Sciences.

The beet root is subject to scabbing, caused by the same organism that is mentioned above as being found upon potatoes.

It does not, however, appear to seriously affect the value of the roots for the purposes for which they are ordinarily grown. Some still less important ailments of the roots have been noted. and examined.

From an economic standpoint, far the most important affection of the beet root is one that decreases the sugar content from a few per cent. down to 50 or even 75 per cent. below the normal. The disease is found to be quite wide spread, and holds a place of no inconsiderable importance in relation to profitable sugar beet industry. The disease is of bacterial nature, the microbes being found in great numbers in all affected beets. The organisms occur in all parts of the beet root, but the changes which they occasion do not alter the appearance of the tissues materially, although a person having the necessary experience may be able to detect the presence of the disease with much certainty upon cutting the root open. Much study has been given to the characteristics and development of this micro-organism, and the results will be published early in

1892.

TOMATOES.

The relation of immaturity of seed to earliness in ripening of the fruit continues to receive attention, the problem having been studied from new points of view during the last year. Although much study and labor have been devoted to the subject, yet no full and satisfactory conclusion has been arrived at, and the investigation will be carried over into the coming year.

Some attention has been given to several matters of heredity, looking toward a better understanding of the conditions underlying the improvement of this fruit, and similar cultivated plants Among the most interesting facts elicited is the distribution of a certain range in number of seed cavities in the fruit among the fruits of a single plant, and also among the fruits of a variety. The data has not received adequate study at this writing, however, to warrant a statement of the full bearing of the discoveries.

CARNATIONS.

In the middle of October some leaves of carnation pinks were received from Indianapolis affected with a destructive