Abstract

Sorghum forms one of the important food grains of the Madras state. It is grown over an area of 18 lakhs of acres. Several diseases are known to affect this crop. Of these the smuts are the most damaging. There are four kinds of smuts recorded on this crop in the Madras state. These are the grain smut, the loose smut, the long smut, and the head smut. The head smut is common in several districts in the state and in some years it has been observed to infect about five per cent of the crop in parts of Coimbatore and Salem districts. The entire ear head is trans- formed into a sorus which is covered by a thin whitish membrane in the early stage. Sooner or later the membrane is ruptured and a black mass of spores mixed with numerous fibres is exposed. The occurrence of this smut has been found to be greater in rainfed crops than in irrigated crop.

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