FORMALIN FOR DRESSING WHEAT.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 9

FORMALIN FOR DRESSING WHEAT.

The Acting Principal of the Boseworthy Agricultural College 'Mr W. J. Colebatoh, B.Sc.) has great faith in the use of formalin for the prevention of smut in wheat (says, an Adelaide contemporary), and at the conference of the south-western branches of the-Agricultural Bureau he expressed the hope that it would be utilis&d more extensively. Coming on top of those remarks it is interesting to note in the report of the principal of the Dookie and' Longerenonar Agricultural Colleges, Viotoria, that "this season the percentage of germination of wheats treated with bluestone or copper su!(phate solution, compared with that of wheat treated with formalin, was 66.03 per cent, to 86.63 per cent. The seed treated with formalin had the advantag© to a. considerable degree. With wheat pickled, with a strong solution of bluestone not only was the germination very bad, but the growth in the early part of the season was very poor." The results obtained from plots sown under the. supervision of the Victorian Government Vegetable Pathologist (Mr D. M'Alpine) , on June 28, _ 1909, show that formalin-treated ; ?•-■?<& yielded 16 bushels 281 b an ncrn. and bluoistone treated seed 15 bushels 21 lb, an increase of 1 bushel

71b. in favour of the "formalincxi" seed. Concerning' ilia lersgrb cf time seed wheat may be kept after pickiiajj before being sown it js worthy of mention thai the yield indicated was obtained from seed sown at the rate of 501 b to the aore 1] days after pickling From the tests madi.- it is con-

sidered that it would be perfectly safe to keep seed treated with cither formalin or bluestono at least a fortnight before putting- it in the ground, but that it would not by any means be advisable to keep it for throe months.