WHEAT EXPERIMENT WORK

Te Aroha News, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5501, 18 June 1917, Page 3

WHEAT EXPERIMENT WORK

SMALL PLOTS AND RUST. In discussing the weakness and failure n| wheat e\] erimeni work in small plots, Sir .Joseph Carnilliers, in an Australian exchange, slates that small ate.is are a delusion and a snare. "J find,'’ he says, ‘‘that ii long spaces ate left between the plots (which are generally a few drills in width), rust spores are carried by the wind right, through the pilots, and rust i lien plays havoc even with rtisl-re-sistant wheats. The action of air cut reins in spreading rust is not realised by many; but as the spores are light and tallied by air movements ii stands to reason that anything tending to air currents will cause a dissemination of the spores on every plant adjacent. 1 have seen fields of .Marquis and Huron wheats with rusts on the stray or isolated plants on the western and eastern sides where my headlands are: yet no plants will be affected one loot or thereabouts inside the main crop except very lightly and very rarely. Of course the spores of rust, nnict lie deposited iu the main crop as well as on tile outskirts, hut not to the extent that must occur where Ilm air current has full play all round the plant. “Of course, an answer may he made to me that a rusted crop often goes right through from end to end. That is so, because the variety is not rust resistant, and tlm straw is not silting. Weakness of straw or stem not only is evidence of a lack ol const it u( ion, hut it results in a field losing its compactness of growth alter wind or rain storms, and its unevenness creates air passages and air current. “1 can give no better instance to prove that the plot system lends itselt to rust than this incident, viz,:—l went through a headland at the eastern end ol my field iu February. Poplars and elms had been planted in a row there, and the ploughman aud sower had kept about 12ft away from the trees iu his operations. Stray seeds of wheat laid been .scattered over the headland, and as a consequence 'there were about 31)0 wheat plants growing in a long strip of about 30 chains, all isolated. Now the main crop was rust free or only lightly, touched, and there were about six varieties of wheat, each in its own area. Thinking J would .secure some fine heads from these stray plants (which, of course, were not touched hv the harvester), I proceeded to cut them with shears. There was hardly one head that was not rusted, and the whole plant in most cases was badly affected.

“I want no further proof than this afforded me of two tilings. First, that the more open-air space around a plant the more rust there, will he, and, second, the later and the longer a plant remains exposed in a rust season the more it will be damaged by rust. The latter fact was proved because those isolated plants having more root room kept on growing, and ripened later than the main crop, and their lateness was hurtful to them, as rust spores became more aboundant. “I give tlies facts from keen observation, and I am sure there is food for reflection in them.”