Take-all and White-head.s in Wheat. 413 



There was a splendid crop of wheat growing on bh^ck soil, which 

 had been fallowed early (June), sown about the beginning of April 

 with 27 lbs. of seed, and a dressing added of 15 lbs. concentrated 

 superphospate to the acre. It had been fed down with sheep for six 

 weeks, and while the main crop was a splendid sample, and almost 

 ripe, a strip had to be cut early on account of white-heads. There 

 was no evident difference in the laud where the white-heads occurred, 

 but one farmer remarked that it usually appeared on the best land in 

 ;i paddock. 



South Australia has long suffered from this disease, and I am 

 indebted to Mr. Summers of the Agricultural Department, Adelaide, 

 for valuable information and specimens. With reference to some 

 plants sent, which showed the fungus in profusion, he wrote: — 

 "Most of the plants came from some of my experimental plots. I 

 noticed far more where potash only was applied, than where either 

 phosphates only or phosphate and potash was the dressing. I think, 

 however, this was only due to the fact that the former crop was 

 much thinner, consequently the dead plants were more prominent." 



The opinion of farmers is most conflicting in connection with the 

 appearance of take-all Some say that it is worse in wet seasons, 

 others, in dry ; that it is not so bad in manui^ed as in uumanured land; 

 others, that it is just as bad ; and still others, that it may occur on a 

 slope or on flat land. It is generally conceded that in new ground it 

 only appears in small patches. No wonder that the South Australian 

 Commission in reporting on take-all in 18l38, said : — " Its movements 

 being so little reducible to rule, experience and observation are at 

 fault in endeavouring to explain it, and hence conflicting ideas. This 

 ■difference perplexes the inquiry, whilst the rapid spread of the pest 

 and the fear that it will every year encroach upon wider tracts of 

 country, render close observation and study a duty of the utmost 

 importance." Now that take-all is known to be a specific disease 

 caused by a specific organism, much of the perplexity vanishes, and 

 our efforts in getting rid of it are directed towards a certain definite 

 end. 



The examination of hundreds of specimens this season from 

 different wheat-growing districts has shown that in the best crops and 

 the worst crops alike, the disease appears. It is found in fallowed 

 and manured land as well as in unmanured, aud where constant 

 cropping has been resorted to. It has been met with also in newly- 

 ploughed land and in new land fallowed. The crops generally are 

 heavy and healthy, and although the disease seemed to attack manured 

 and unmanured alike, still in those cases where wheat had been 

 continuously grown, it appeared to be more generally distributed. 



The fungus being in the soil, and the spores germinating readily 

 in moisture, as has been experimentally proved, wherever the seedling 

 wheat plant came within its sphere of influence there would the 

 disease appear. And in laud continuously cropped with wheat, the 

 fungus had spread and multiplied from season to season, so that the 

 land had become more or less impregnated with it. Another cause 



