292 WiscoxsiN State Hoktioultural Society. 



mon among fungi, and it also answers well to show the vast num- 

 ber of spores these microscopic plants produce. The teleutospore 

 usually bears from five to ten sporidia ; and allowing only one of 

 these to find the barberry leaf, there may be from one to fifty 

 clusters as a result. In this case suppose only one, and a very 

 low estimate for its contents would be 250,000 oscidium spores, 

 and if only one of these in a thousand finds a place on the grain 

 stalk, and each brings forth its 250,000 fold, there .would be, un- 

 der such circumstances, 62,500,000 from the single one from 

 which we started. Taking the same teleutospore, and supposing 

 every spore in all the stages found in place to fill it, the result 

 would be 1,562,500,000,000,000,000 (one quintillion, five hun- 

 dred and sixty two quadrillions, five hundred trillions) spores, 

 which may be looked upon as its descendants for the season. Or 

 :giving each inhabitant of the globe his equal share of these re- 

 productive bodies, he would have nearly as many as there are 

 individuals in the whole human race. This may seem like a very 

 large story about a very small matter ; but it is not the only 

 wonderful truth the microscope has revealed. 



it is much easier to tell in what rust consists than how to avoid 

 it. Knowing the nature of the plant, and that in one of its stages 

 it grows upon the barberry, the cutting away of all barberry 

 Toushes may do much to check this unwelcome pest, if not to im- 

 prove the landscape and the general appearance of the farmers' 

 boundary lines. As to the best time to sow a crop to avoid the 

 rust, little information can be given. Sow when you would ex- 

 pect the best returns were there no such thing as rust. Many 

 trials have been made of soaking seeds in various chemical solu- 

 tions before sowing, but, from the nature of the parasite, little 

 good is to be hoped for from such a practice. Until the weather 

 is under man's control we cannot hope to eliminate the conditions 

 for the rapid development of rust, causing, as it will, a partial or 

 entire failure of the grain crop. 



The Ustilago maydis, generally known as Corn Smufc, is another 

 of these microscopic plants which often grows in fields of maize. 

 Though less prevalent than the rust, it is, like that, a sworn 

 enemy of the agriculturist. Sometimes it makes its appearance 



