WHEAT RUST

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 5

WHEAT RUST

BATTLE WITH DISEASE

CANADA FAST WINNING'

Laboratory studies and practical experimentation carried on over a period of more than five years by the National Besearch Council of Canada, in cooperation, with agricultural experts of the Western Provinces, have made it possible for the council to announce that wheat rust is being conquered. For years rust has made inroads into the Canadian wheat crop, sometimes reducing production by millions of bushels, and no progress was made in its extermination until the problem was tackled with systematic thoroughness by the Research Council, which ij a Federal body. . The council has been able to report distinct progress in two lines of activity: the development of rust-resistant varieties of wheat, and the understanding of the fundamental qualities of the rust disease. It reports a tremendous advance all along the tine of battle, and declares the major problem nearly solved. In fact, the council now is confident that within the next two or three years it will be possiblo to distribute rust-proof seed generally throughout the wheat-growing areas of the Dominion. Several new wheat hybrids in preliminary tests have shown high rust resistance, and satisfactory yield and quality. Those now are being subjected to still further severe tests at various points in the Prairie Provinces, and such as continue to give a good account of themselves will be multiplied for distribution to farmers.

It has been shown by tests that prevailing winds of the North American continent carry the deadly spores of rust across the wheat belt from south to north. Last year, for instance, rust spores were reported in Texas on 20th April, Nebraska on 6th June, North Dakota 24th June, Manitoba 26th Junej Saskatchewan 11th July, and Albert* 10th August. Air currents had carried the spores northward at the rate-of approximately fifty miles a day.