412 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



destruction of tlie plants is hardly so noticeable as on loose friable 

 soils, and the plants seem better able to withstand the fungus for a 

 time at least, and when they do succumb, it is only after the ears have 

 begun to appear. 



These are the symptoms which readily strike the casual observer; 

 but if the dead or dying plants are closely examined at the root, they 

 will be found more or less blackened at the butt, hence the name 

 given to this disease in France is "Foot-rot" or "Black-leg." And if 

 such plants are pulled, it will be found that the roots break off short, 

 leaving only a short, densely hairy and swollen portion attached to 

 the stem. It often occurred that new roots had been given off by the 

 stem above the diseased portion, and they were sometimes able to 

 prolong the life of the plant, but sooner or later they became unequal 

 to the task of keeping up the supply of food, and so death ensued. — 

 (See Figs. 1 and 2^. 



Conditions under which the Disease Occurs. 



There is a large body of evidence on this point, only we must be 

 sure that it is the disease caused by a fungus with which we are 

 dealing, and not one due to a hollow seed-bed or water-logging, or 

 the plants being overrun with weeds. Not only have numerous 

 specimens been examined, sent from Numurkah in the East to Nhill 

 in the West, from Quambatook in the North to Ballarat in the 

 South, and from South Australia as well, but my assistant and 

 myself have driven over large stretches of country in order to observe 

 at first hand the conditions under which the disease occurred. Over a 

 limited area one kind of soil is seen to be worse affected than another, 

 one kind of wheat more susceptible than another, but when observa- 

 tions are extended, these distinctions often disappear. 



In the Donald district, visited about the middle of November, 

 and which comprises some of the finest farming land in the State, I 

 found that while the wheat crops generally were as heavy as ever 

 produced in that part, yet there were a number of take-all patches 

 and white-heads, which would considerably reduce the expected yield. 

 A number of varieties were grown, but they were all more or less 

 affected. One farmer pointed out JDart's Imperial as comparatively 

 free, while another considered this variety as the worst. Queen's 

 Jubilee was likewise noted as very bad, while in another case it was 

 quite free, so that none of the varieties grown here seemed to be 

 exempt. Then there are two kinds of soil in the district, known as 

 the red and the black. The red land is best in a dry season, for it is 

 firm, and retains the moisture, while the black land under the same 

 conditions cracks and soon becomes loose and dry. The black land 

 is very rich, and requires more moisture, and with good rains it 

 becomes firm, the moisture going deep down, and causing the crop 

 to come up well. This season the rainfall was above the average, 

 being 17-97 inches to November loth, as against an annual average 

 of 16-17 inches, and the black land produced magnificent crops, but 

 in both kinds of soil the disease was found. 



