126 



those years when wheat rust swept tlie 

 plains and consumed the grains like 

 a prairie fire. I'lic wheat rust fungus ate 

 most of our bread at the first sitting. 

 ^^'e had to settle for rice and corn 

 bread. 



Wc were lucky during Worid War 

 II. Wheat rust did not stage another 

 such ruinous raid and we did not have 

 whcatless days. Of course, scientific re- 

 search had also been at work in the 

 meantime and had won part of the 

 fight with that fungus. 



Wheat rust was known to the 

 Israelites who talked about it in Gene- 

 sis. It was known to the Romans. And 

 it was known in Colonial America. On 

 this last point, there hangs a tale of 

 the impact of a plant disease on eivili- 

 zarion. This is the tale of how wheat 

 rust altered the eating habits of a group 

 of people. 



When the English colonists came 

 to America, some settled in New Eng- 

 land, and others in ridewater Virginia, 

 Plxmouth and Jamestown being set- 

 tled within a few years of each other. 

 Undoubtedly, both groups of immi- 

 grants brought wheat with them, and 

 they both found the Indians growing 

 corn. The wheat rust disease, however, 

 acted difl?erently on the wheats in the 

 two colonies, just as it does today. 



WHEAT RUST ALTERS EATING HABITS 



Wheat rust is a much more serious 

 disease in a warm than in a cool cli- 

 mate. It was to be expected, therefore, 

 that wheat rust proved much more 

 damaging to the Colonial crops of 

 wheat in warm \'irginia than in cool 

 New England. It is probable that the 

 settlers of Virginia found wheat a diffi- 

 cult crop on account of rust whereas 

 the settlers of New England found 

 wheat a good crop as it had been in 

 England itself. 



It seems to me quite likely that 

 wheat rust explains today's difference 



LOWER PLANTS, DISEASES, AND MEDICINE 



between the carbohydrate diets of the 

 southern and the ' northern United 

 States. Bread, we say, is the "staff of 

 life." In the South bread means corn 

 bread. In the North bread means wheat 

 bread. 



I submit that wheat rust was so de- 

 structive in the South that the colonists, 

 perforce, had to eat corn bread, grits, 

 and hominy. Difficult as food habits are 

 to change, the southern colonists had 

 to change from wheat to corn. Wheat 

 bread was so rarely obtainable in the 

 South that it came to have its own 

 name, light or white bread. 



Wheat grew well enough in the 

 North so that wheat bread remained 

 the "staff of life." 



Now you may be thinking that 

 \^'heat can be and is grown in some of 

 the warm parts of the United States— 

 in Texas and Oklahoma. The explana- 

 rion for this is that wheat rust is severe 

 only when warmth is accompanied by 

 moisture. In Oklahoma and Texas 

 there is much less moisture during the 

 wheat-growing season than in the more 

 humid areas of the eastern part of the 

 South. Hence, wheat rust does not 

 make the crop unprofitable in the dry 

 Southwest as it does in the humid 

 Southeast. 



The relarion of moisture and 

 warmth to wheat rust has also resulted 

 in some interesring dietary habits in 

 Europe, and in turn in the develop- 

 ment of a scourge known as St. An- 

 thony's Fire. 



A MEDIEVAL SCOURGE 



The same pattern of food habits 

 applies in Europe as in America. 

 Wheat grows well in England, which 

 like New England, is moist enough for 

 wheat rust but a little too cool. There- 

 fore, in England, bread is wheat bread. 

 W^heat also grows well in Italy, which 

 like Oklahoma, is warm enough for 

 wheat rust, but a little too dr)-. There- 



