Commercial fertilisers are analysed by the Departments of Agriculture, and official lists are published showing their content. The Australian wheatgrower is practically not troubled with wheat diseases. Thirty years ago rust was a trouble, but the breeding of rust-resistant varieties of wheat has effectually overcome that drawback, and rust is seldom, if ever, heard of now. In addition, wheatgrowing is now carried on in districts where the conditions are seldom favourable to rust, which is only liable to cause serious loss when there is hot, moist weather late in the spring. This weather is very rarely experienced in the Australian wheat belt, and certainly little has been heard of rust for many years. Smut is the only other important parasitic disease, but as the practice of "pickling" seed before sowing is extending, this trouble has practically disappeared. Bunt or stinking smut is so called because it has an objectionable smell, which makes its presence known in the grain and deteriorates its value. As stated, it can be readily prevented by treating the seed. Smut belongs to a low form of plant life, and the plant is produced from a seed, which in its turn matures and produces other seed, which are microscopic and are known as spores. These spores are found when matured in masses occupying the place of the wheat kernels, and these masses are called bunt-balls. The chief and almost only cause of smut is sowing wheat seed which has healthy smut spores attached to it. By destroying the vitality of these spores the grain crop will be clean. The most common solutions for pickling wheat seed are bluestone (copper sulphate) 1-1/2 lb. to 10 gallons of water, and formalin 1 lb. to 45 gallons of water. Bunt balls are lighter than wheat, and float in water, so if the wheat to be treated is poured slowly into the pickle, and in such a way that the bunt balls will not be carried down by the grain, they will float on top, and can be skimmed off and destroyed. The details of pickling vary on different farms, but a common method is to place the wheat about 2 bushels at a time in loosely-tied butts or bags, and then by means of a lever it is lowered into the solution for two or three minutes, when it is raised on to a sloping trough, where the superfluous solution can drain back into the cask. Another method is to place the seed wheat, either loose or in bags, in elevated casks or troughs made out of hollow logs, and pour the bluestone solution over it. After it has remained on the wheat the necessary time it is run off into another cask or trough placed in a lower position. After the seed has been treated it requires some time drying before it can be sown through the drill. All that is necessary is to place the butts where they can drain freely, and the seed will be ready to sow after a few hours.