BUNT, sometimes called SMUT BALL, PEPPER BRAND and BRAND BLAD DERS, the most formidable disease, perhaps, to which wheat is subject, but one which may in most instances be greatly modified, and which seldom in the present day does material injury except where there is careless cultivation. Like many other of the diseases to which the cereal plants are subject, it arises from the attack of a parasitic fungus (Uredo caries). It is gener ated in the ovary of wheat and a few other Graminece, and very rarely on the stem. It is formed at an early stage of growth, before the ear is free from the sheath; and indeed the plants which are affected by the parasite may be readily recognized by their unusual luxuri ance, being generally several inches higher than plants not affected, larger in bulk, and often producing a greater number of stems. from the same root. The bunted grains are shorter and blunter than the sound, of a dark-green when young, but When old of a pale brown, or some times nearly black. The contents of the ovary
are reduced to a uniform black powder or paste, which has an offensive smell like that of de cayed fish. Various substances have been used by cultivators to prevent the growth of bunt, such as salt, quicklime, arsenic, corrosive subli mate, etc. Careful washing and a selection of good seed will alone prevent much mischief, but it is advisable to take some more stringent measures with a view to destroy the vitality of the bunt spores. For this purpose Dombasle's method is the most successful. It consists in thoroughly wetting the grain with a solution of sulphate of soda (Glauber's salts), then drying the wheat with quicklime, which combines with the water to make sulphate of lime (gypsum), which acts as a manure, while the caustic soda destroys the vegetative powers of the bunt spores.