lis TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



whicli direction the enemy is to approach is of vital importance to 

 the General, and no less so to the farmer. If we could discard the 

 air as a medium for spreading this pest, and confine our attention to 

 the soil, our task would be reduced greatly. We could more reasona- 

 bly hope to make some application to the soil which would check 

 this fungus development, than to arrest it in its flight on the wings 

 of the wind. 



A farmer living on the bottom lands of the Merced River told me 

 of a rather peculiar experience which he had with rust. Water was 

 let into portions of a field too late in the season. The result was that 

 the grain rusted just where the water had been. Of course this was 

 but a common experience. But the next year the grasses and weeds 

 on the same portions of the field were rusty, and this kept up for sev- 

 eral seasons, marking out distinctly the course taken by the water. 

 This case suggests at least a tainting of the soil by the rusty crop of 

 grain. 



Rust injures the berry of wheat by robbing it of its nutriment 

 before it is filled. If it does not appear until the berry is well 

 advanced it is not likely to greatly reduce the yield. If it has 

 reached the dough stage there is little to fear. Then again, if the rust 

 is confined to the leaves, the grain suffers much less than when the 

 stems and chaff are attacked. Some years ago I was trying farming, 

 on reclaimed tule peat land, on Andrus Island, in this county. A 

 neighbor had an extensive and very promising crop of wheat upon 

 which the rust appeared. Fearing that he was to lose the crop as- 

 grain he set about cutting it for hay. Fortunately he was delayed, 

 so that but little was cut before the grain became plump and he saw 

 that he was needlessly alarmed. I have known frequent cases where 

 rusty grain has been cut for hay and the heads have filled while 

 it was curing in the cock. 



Our farmers of the interior seem to have become so used to cutting^ 

 wheat with the header when dead ripe, that they have forgotten that 

 in the Atlantic States and Europe it is usual to cut it while the grain 

 is still soft and let it fill in the shock. This method might not be 

 practicable in the warmest sections, on account of the too rapid dry- 

 ing of the straw. Along the coast, on the delta lands and other moist 

 regions where the rust is most likely to prevail, cutting early could 

 probabl}'' be practiced with profit, if the grain were bound and 

 shocked immediately. It would not only be a safeguard against rust, 

 but would lessen the danger of shelling out in high winds. If the 

 rust is confined to the leaves at the time of cutting, its development 

 is checked b}^ their drying, while the stalks may remain moist enough 

 to feed the head for some time. 



There is no doubt that the rust plant is as widely disseminated as 

 the wheat plant. It can almost invariably be found in greater or les& 

 quantities when a field of wheat is well advanced. But it does no 

 special harm unless circumstances favor it. Like its larger cousin^ 

 the mushroom, rust may develop with amazing rapidity and utterly 

 ruin a crop which was but a few days before the pride of its ov/ner. 

 A healthy wheat plant may be able to resist the attacks of this and 

 other funguses where one that was weakened from any cause would 

 be destroyed. Anything, therefore, which tends to debilitate the 

 wheat increases the chances of the rust. Among the commonest 

 causes of rust is too great a supply of moisture in the soil. This 

 keeps the roots of the plant cold while the top may be exposed to a 



