Upon p. 289, American Garden for August, 1889, W. H. Bull states that "my neighbor, a careful observer, says that the smut on sweet corn is produced by the winds that break the stalks at the root when the corn is in the silk. Earlier or later it will not produce the same result".

Corn smut is a parasitic fungus that usually makes its appearance upon corn about the time of flowering. The stalks may be apparently in a healthy state, growing vigorously and having every indication of thrift. The first mark of disease is the starting of small swellings upon various parts of the plant. They may occur any where between the surface of the ground (the root is never affected) and the tips of the tassel, but oftenest within the ear.

It was formerly thought that the disease was worse in wet seasons than in dry ones. The past season was exceptionally dry in this section until after the middle of May, the rainfall during March and April being only 1.82 in., with none at all in May until the seventeenth. Earliest sweet corn, Cory and Triumph, began to smut with me soon after the first rains, or as soon as it began to blossom, while that planted later, which had an almost continuous soaking through latter part of May and all of June, was very free from the disease. Other observations have shown that it may be very destructive in exceptionally dry seasons, seasons in which the drought has extended over the entire corn-growing period.

This fungus is so prevalent at times as to seriously affect the profits of market-gardeners who grow sweet corn, and unless some combined effort, based upon exact knowledge regarding its habits and method of propagation, is made to stamp out the disease, we may expect it to continue and to increase in destructiveness.

The dry powder that exudes upon the bursting of the epidermis of the swellings above mentioned, as the plant approaches maturity, contains the spores, which are distributed in many ways, and which may perpetuate the disease indefinitely, as it has been ascertained that they will retain vitality for at least two years.

If the bunches of dry smut are left upon the stalk, or if broken off and thrown upon the ground, the spores will be taken up and scattered by the wind. If thrown into the manure or compost pile, they will germinate and grow, and when the manure is spread where corn is to be planted, will be ready to again seize upon the young plants. Smut should not be fed to cattle because in quantity it is injurious, while it will pass through their intestines without injury to itself, and infect the manure as before.

Smut does not exist in the seed, but being distributed upon the land, in these ways it enters the plant while the latter is young, and grows with its growth, making its fullest development about the time the plant is ready to develop its fruit. Its injurious effect is then most apparent, as it draws to itself the nutriment that should go to form the perfect ear and grain.

Prevention is the only cure for the trouble ; applications to the growing crop cannot reach the seat of the disease. If cut out as soon as it appears, or at any time before it bursts through the covering, while it is yet a damp, slimy mass, the spores will not mature and it may be merely thrown away. If allowed to reach the powdery stage, it should be burned, or buried so deep that the plow can not bring it again to the surface.

Land infected by it should be cultivated at least two years with other crops, after which probably most of the spores will have perished.

Corn is not often injured much by the wind ("the stalks broken at the root ") until it has reached a stage of considerable development, that is, until it is high enough to be blown down. This is about the time it is ready to flower, and is the period at which the fungus, if present, will become prominently visible. - James K. Reeve, Ohio.