FARMERS' COLUMN. THE RUST IN WHEAT.

North Otago Times, Volume XV, Issue 598, 10 February 1871, Page 4

FARMERS' COLUMN. THE RUST IN WHEAT.

Dr Carl Muche contributed a long article to the " Australasian " on the subject of the rust in wheat, He says : — The vegetable parasite, known here as " black rust " or «• red rust," belongs to the Ustilagineoe, Tilletia caries, Puccinia graminis, &c, and not to the Saphrophytes, but to the Endophytes. The first exists only on the juice of plants when in a state of decomposition ; while the latter thrives on the juice of living and healthy plants. They originate, like all plants, solely from organs of propagation produced by themselves. These varieties of rust live and develope themselves in the interior of the grain plants, which they invade from the outside. After a lengthened description of his observa-' tions on the subject, he adds the following recommendations to agriculturists : — 1. To keep the land free from the seed of the parasite by weeding out every plant on which the formation of the speres of the rust become apparent on the outside of the plant. Every such plant must be torn out, mowed off and burned; but on no account whatever should such plants be used for feed cattle, as the undigested seed of the parasite would be brought back on the land with the manure. (Besides the black rust taken with water is very dangerous to cattle feeding on cereal plants, and under circumstances death may result from its use, as I have proved in South Australia.) 2. After rust has made its appearance on a field, the ground ought not to be ploughed for a year, but should remain fallow ; it might be grazed, and the plants mowed down in time. 3. Land on which the seed of rust has taken a firm hold ought for seveial years to be planted with roots, turnips, potatoes, peas, &c. — crops which are not attacked by rust — as these plants do not supply the conditions necessary for the existence of the rust. Very essential for the extirpation of the rust, and operating for that purpose, are also the following conditions: — 1. Sound rational agricultural management, which will produce healthy, sound, quickly growing plants, which are capable of offering a much more successful resistance to the attacks of the parasite than plants which grow weakly, uneven, or too rank. 2. Selection of the best and heaviest seed-corn, which ought to be very frequently changed, according to localities. (In consequence of the adoption of the unfortunate practice in South Australia of selecting for seed the wheat which had been shrivelled and poisoned by red rust, the result of a rust epidemic, the farms of that Colony have been ruined for many years to come, as has been shown by recent crops.) 3. Selection of such sorts and specialties of wheat as experience has shown to resist strongly the attacks of the rust-parasite. 4. Careful pickling of the seed with blue-stone. The pickle should consist of 6oz. of blue-stone to four bushels of seed. The grain ought to be entirely immersed in the pickle from 12 to 24 hours, according to the state of the weather. By these means all the spores of rust which adhere to the grain are destroyed. 5. In the neighborhood of the land such varieties of grass must be destroyed as might offer breeding-ground to the rust-parasite. These are the sole remedies which will be found to answer for the removal and destruction of a plague which, after it has once made its appearance, will never vanish unless these means are taken.