SOME HINTS ABOUT GRAIN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1261, 30 April 1896, Page 5

SOME HINTS ABOUT GRAIN.

PREPARATION OF SEED GRAIN. Wheat is subject to many enemies, one of the most of which is stinking smut. I Hitherto tin's has licen fought against by the use of Milestone soaks, but now the claims of hot water arc being considered. Professor Jensen, of Denmark, discovered that smutty wheat immersed in water heated to from 130• to 135' F. is not injurious for seed, but that this temperature kills the germs of stinking smut. A higher temperature harms the wheat and a lower temperature will not kill all the smut spores. This treatment causes the wheat to germinate sooner than wheat not so treated, while the bluest ore methods, especially the dipping method, retard germination. In fact, the hot-water treatment seems to have in decided, though small, advantage iu increasing the yield of the crop. This is doubtless the best of the three methods where the farmer has facilities for perfectly carrying it out. Buton most farms it is very difiicult to dry the treated wheat, and few have thermometers which are accurate enough to be relied upon at the temperatures named. By this method, if the drying is rapidly and thoroughly done, the seed may he prepared some days or weeks before the time of sowing. STEEPING THE GRAIN TN HOT WATER. Fill two barrels or wash tubs twothirds full of water. Keep the water in No. 1 at 120' to 130* and No. 2 at 130' to 135\ Fill gunny sacks, or bags of other openmeshed material, partly full of wheat; immerse in No. 1 till the wheat is warmed up so as r.ot to cool the water in No. 2 ; dr-.m the bag a few seconds and then imm i-:o in No. 2 for five minutes, rai-mc and lowering the bag or kneading the wheat, so that the water thoroughly penetrates to and heats every kernel. Spread out at once and shovel over until dry. It is a good plan to dip the bag of wheat in cool water, so as to cool the wheat at once. Care must be taken to add hob water so as to keep the water in No. 2 at 130 to 135; 133' F. is the tem» perature preferred,

tTSE OF BLUESTONE WITH SEED WHEAT. There are several ways of using bluestone (copper sulphate) with grain. Sprinkling is frequently of great service. Dissolve lib of bluestone (coppersulphate) in 3gal of water. Spread out 10 bushels of wheat on a tight floor in barn or house, or in a tight box, and sprinkle on the solution. With scoop shovel turn the grain several times during the sprinkling till overy kernal is thoroughly wetted. The solution needs to penetrate even the hairs of the blossom end of each kernel, and to penetrate the crease in the grain. In case of badly infested need wheat it should be tirst thoroughly cleaned, using a strong bhat to remove all grains of bunt, and the 3gal of the solution should be applied to only 7 bushels of wheat instead of 10 bushels. In three hours the wheat will be ready for sowing, and as the bluestone somewhat injures the seed it should not be prepared long before it is sown. A good plan is to prepare in the evening, the seed to be used the next day. As the seed is somewhat swollen, a few quarts more per acre should be sown than of dry wheat. The bluestone solution can be made by the barrel, using caro to get the right proportions of bluestone and water, and then it can be measured out one ten-quart pailful to seven or eight bushels of wheat. The wheat should be turned four or five times within an hour after sprinkling. DIPPING WHEAT. .Fill a barrel two-thirds full of a solution of H-lb of bluestone (sulphate of copper) to one gallon of water. Partially fill gunny sacks with wheat and immerse in the solution for five or ten minutes, moving the sack up and down and shaking or kneading it so that every kernel is thoroughly wetted. Arrange a drip shelf on which to set the sacks of wet wheat, that the solution draining out may run back into the barrel, or hang them on hooks and cutch the drip in pails. When the water ceases dripping out of I tlio bags, pour the wheat on the barn floor and shovel a few times daily till dry enough to sow, or it to bo kept some days, dry thoroughly enough to store without danger ol heating. The drying may bo facilitated by mixing slaked lime or wood ashes with the wet wheat. It is necessary to renew the quantity of the solution, and for this purpose the prepared solution may bo kept ready in other barrels. We have seen the same work done eflectively by the use of baskets from which the moisture escapes from the wheat very easily. —Sydney Hail.