684 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1884. 



size of a largish pear ; " this, -when cooked, is edible, 

 though without "much flavor. Though Bamboos grow wild, 

 the Japanese and Ohiuese at least, do not trust to chance 

 lor a supply of so important a plant, but cultivate it ; in 

 their languages are treatises entirely devoted to Bamboo 

 culture. 



Since the aoove was in type, we had a conversation with 

 a young Japanese friend upon the Bamboo. He informed 

 us that a year or two ago a relative of his sent some- 

 thing like 200 different varieties of Bamboos to our De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington. Inquiry was made 

 at the Department concerning these plants, in order to 

 learn where they had been planteo, ind what success had 

 attended the experiment. Reply came from one of the 

 officers that all that was known about the Bamboos was 

 the fact that they had been received. The former Com- 

 missioner, it is supposed, sent or took them to some 

 Southern State, but there is no record of the maicer at 

 the Department. If any of our Southern friends know 

 of where these Bamboos were planted and how they have 

 succeeded, we shall be glad to hear from them. — Amtriaun 

 Ayriadturist. 



BUNT AND SMUT. 

 riie names bunt and smut are indifferently applied to 

 a class of fungoid diseases which attack all grain crops 

 more or less. The chief predisposing cause of the appear- 

 ance of these parasites is a warm, abnormally wet sum- 

 mer. The bunt of wheat, TiUttia caries, also known as 

 brand, black-baD, and pepper-brand, attacks every kind of 

 wheat,_ spelt having less to fear from it than other sorts, 

 aiid winter less than summer wheat. The fungus fills up 

 with its spores the whole of .the ovary, so that at the 

 time of ripening there is found in place of the grain an 

 elongated, black, greasy body of most disagreeable odour. 



Smut, Ustilago carlo, more especially attacks 

 oats, so that the phrase " smut of oats " has be- 

 come familiar. The disease first shows itself on the organs 

 of fructification, the epidermis of which is irregularly rup- 

 tured in a great number of places, a black powder then 

 appearing through the slits. The different parts of the 

 flower are attacked iu a very unequal degree. The whole 

 of the parenchymatous tissue is often destroyed, and so 

 much is this the case in winter barley, that of the whole 

 ear the common avis of the inflorescence alone remains, 

 vihWe in other cases, as in oats, the seed only is destroyed, 

 the rales or glumes enclosing the grain remaining unaf- 

 fected. During the progress of the disease, and especially 

 towards its later stages, the black dust consisting of the 

 spoals also emerges from the c\ilms beneath the flowers, 

 and even from the leaves. I'stilayo Maidis is the smut of 

 maize, which converts the grains into large tumours filled 

 with the black dusty spores, the diseased part frequently 

 exhibiting swelhngs as large as the fist, and sometimes 

 the size of the head. Ustilaijo nccvlta fructifies in the 

 leaves and haulms of the rye, while the millet-smut, Us- 

 tilago flestri'eiis, destroys the whole of the flower, even 

 before the ears have emerged from the leaf-sheath. Be- 

 sides wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, millet, and dari, 

 ^•arious species of grass are liable to the attacks of bunt 

 and smut, so that the disease is often very widely spread. 



These parasites were with rust Fuccinia i/raminis, long 

 included by fungologists in the division Hypodermii on 

 account of their vegetating beneath the epidermis of the 

 host-plant. Recently Ferdinand Oohn, a celebrated Ger- 

 man botanist, has advanced reasons for assigning bunt and 

 smut to a sejiarate order, the Ustilaginese (from ustus- 

 burnt, destroyed), the rust being relegated to the order- 

 jEcidiomycetes, this and the one already mentioned form, 

 ing two orders of the highest gi'oup of" fungi, the carpo, 

 .spores. 



The life-history of the parasites now under consideration 

 is comparatively simple. When one of the microscopic 

 spores germinates it gives rise to a delicate hyphal tube, 

 the promycelium, which soon begins to branch, and after 

 a while the branches conjugate, or become fused together ; 

 the place of union swells somewhat, and forms what is 

 called a sporidium, and this developes the delicate weft 

 or mycelium of branching hyphaj, which can always be 

 found by the aid of a microscope beneath the epidermis 

 of the infested part. The free ends of the mvcclral hyphie 

 become constricted off into a series of spore's which, one 



after another, fall away, and by thus establishing its in- 

 dependence within the host-plant each spore is capable of 

 giving rise to the same series of changes as those we have 

 just described. The life-history of the Ustilaginese may, 

 therefore, be represented thus :— Spore — promycelium — con- 

 jugating branches — sporidia— mycelium— spore. 



The manner in which bunt "and smut are enabled to 

 infect the growing plant is by the introduction of the 

 spores in the seed. Grains of wheat, oats. &c., may look 

 perfectly sound, and yet may contain a few of the minute 

 spores ; these germinate ^t the same time as the seed, and, 

 as the young plant grows, the myceHum is carried up 

 with it, and vegetates most luxuriantly in the delicate 

 parenchymatous tissue of the inflorescence, absorbing all 

 the nutritive juices sent up for the nourishment of the 

 grain, and producing at a prodigious rate crop after crop 

 of sooty .spores, which sometimes entirely usurp the posi- 

 tion of the grain. The latter retains its shapes, but when 

 pressed between the fingers it either crumbles like a mass 

 of soot or emits an unctuous black pulp, which smells like 

 putrid fish. In the process of harvesting, and in a boister- 

 ous wind the spores get scattered broadcast, and thus it 

 becomes a diflScult matter to insure that any grain that 

 has grovm in the neighbourhood of a field infested with 

 bunt or smut sn«ll itself be entirely free from the contagion. 



It has long be>«i known that bunt and smut are trans- 

 mitted through the seed, and all remedial practices are 

 based on this fact. The grains intended for seed are washed 

 or pickled in various solutions before being sown. The 

 uses of corrosive sublimate and arsenic for this purpose 

 are now abandoned, because, though they destroy the spores, 

 they also impair the vitality of the seed. A strong sol- 

 ution of Glauber's salt (sulphate of sodium) is undoubtedly 

 of value, but by far the most useful agent is blue %-itriol 

 sulphate of copper), which is a blue crystallised substance, 

 prepared by dissolving the worn-out copper plates from 

 ships' bottoms in sulphuric acid. The blue vitrioil is pow- 

 dered, and two ounces are dissolved for each pint of water, 

 one pint of the solution being the quantity employed for 

 dressing one bushel of wheat. The grain is laid on the 

 floor, and while being spread about with a shovel, the 

 solution is sprinkled over it and is absorbed, and so kills 

 the spores mthout affecting the vitahty of the gi-ain. 

 The application of sulphate of copper as an antiseptic 

 agent in this way will probably be much extended, for an 

 agricultural chemist has vei-j- lately adduced some valuable 

 experimental evidence in justification of the use of blue 

 vitriol. 



Bunt and smut are, as we have shown, very widespread 

 in their ravages, not only the cereals, but many grasses, 

 and even other pl.-ints quite outside the order of natural 

 Graminese being liable. Of the cultivated cereals, rye is 

 perhaps attacked less frequently than any of the others; 

 but Nature compensates for this in the fact that rj'e is 

 most subject to the attacks of the dangerous ergot. The 

 flour from bunted wheat will always fetch a price ; it is 

 generally used for making dark-coloured foods, such as 

 ginger-bread, and no harm is known to arise to those who 

 eat of it. 



In conclusion, we may compare bunt and smut with 

 rust. The two former have but one kind of spore corre- 

 sponding with the teleutospore of rust. Rust requires two 

 host-plants for the completion of its life-history ; bunt and 

 smut are confined to the same host throughout. Rust 

 attacks chiefly the leaves and culms of the host-plant, so 

 that the straw suffers most, while the grains only suffer 

 indirectly, in consequence of the impairment of the effic- 

 acy of the organs which should prepare the nourishment 

 for the grain ; in bunt and smut, on the other hand, the 

 grain itself is the victim. Lastly, the spores of rust are 

 brownish and reddish, never quite black ; while those of bunt 

 and smut are best described as]sooty. — Mark Lane F.rj'yrs<:, 

 *_J 



FOREST CULTURE. 

 What is more specially regarded as Forest culture is 

 not practised in our East or AVest Indian possessions; the 

 only exception is with regard to the contracts entered 

 upon for felling wood in Netherlands. India, and this oidy in 

 .Java and is exclu.sive'y limited to the Djati-woods. In 

 these contracts the license for felling, is ever accompanied 

 by the condition of inbotttiiu:. and so approaches J be Kuro- 

 penn idea of forest-culture. We give the following account 



