24 CEREAL RUSTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



long" and 12 inches apart at Garrett Park, 20 feet long and 12 inches 

 apart at Salina, and 25 feet long and 20 inches apart at Manhattan. 

 The time of seeding extended from October 17 to November 28, many 

 of the foreign varieties being sown exceedingly late on account of 

 their late arrival in this country. In the experiments at Garrett Park 

 all the varieties, except those from New Mexico and Farrer's crosses, 

 were seeded in two to four rows each. 



The orange leaf rust was the only species that occurred at Garrett 

 Park, but it was extremely abundant, and therefore there was an excel- 

 lent opportunity of testing the resistance of the different varieties to 

 this rust. After this year it was thought best to continue the experi- 

 ments in the States of the Plains, as they more truly represent the 

 conditions of the greater part of our wheat region, and, moreover, the 

 stem rust as well as the leaf rust is nearly always present in that 

 region. Hence the work was transferred to Kansas. Both rusts 

 attacked the wheat at Salina and at Manhattan, the leaf rust being the 

 more common. At Salina, as at Garrett Park, all varieties were planted 

 rather late because of the drought, the dates of seeding extending 

 from October 16 to November 4. At Manhattan all but about a dozen 

 of the varieties were seeded in good time, that is, on Sei)tember 22 and 

 23. The seeding of spring varieties was done each year at the average 

 time for such seeding. 



The winters of 1895-96 and 1896-97 were both unusually severe in 

 the localities where the experiments were conducted, hence hundreds 

 of the imported varieties failed entirely during these two seasons, and 

 only a s^nall proportion of the whole number tested during the three 

 years withstood the climatic rigors and produced seed at the close of 

 the season at Manhattan. It is interesting to note, however, that a 

 number of sorts, especiall^'^ those of Kussian origin, passed the winter 

 at Manhattan in much better condition than most of the varieties reg- 

 ularly grown there by the experiment station (36a, pp. 172-174). 



The rust liability of the different varieties was determined by noting 

 the per cent of rust on each at the date when the rust was most 

 abundant.' 



The experiments at Salina were conducted on the farm of Mr. B. B. 

 Stimmel, who kindly gave the necessary ground free of charge. Through 

 the courtesy of the board of regents Qf the State Agricultural College 

 at Manhattan, the farm department cooperated with this Department 

 in carrying on the experiments on its land and furnished certain aid in 

 the prosecution of the work. For the successful accomplishment of the 



' If no rust spot could be found on any plant in the row, the per cent of rust was 

 of course zero ; if only one or two spots were i)resent on each of the plants in a half 

 dozen or more places, the amount of rust was estimated as 1, 2, or 3 per cent, and so 

 on ; if nearly all the leaves in the row were about half covered with rust, it was 

 estimated as 50 per cent; and if they were practically covered, it was estimated as 

 190 per cent. Of course the estimates were necessarily approximate and, moreover, 

 the scale of rusts varies according to individual ideas. In this case the rust was so 

 slight on the sheath that it was not considered. 



