422 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



for some time. In any case^ innumerable spores would be destroyed 

 in this way, and tlie spread of the disease checked to some extent. 

 With small patclies it would be practicable to spread a heavy layer 

 of straw or litter over them, and burn off, a practice more likely to 

 be beneficial if the spots are first dug over or scarified, so as to 

 loosen the soil and bring as much of the diseased remains of the old 

 crop within the influence of the fire as possible. 



The method of direct attack is however, not the only coarse open, 

 for the fungus may be starved into submission instead. So far as is 

 known with certainty at present, the O'phiobolus is only capable of 

 attacking wheat in this country, though barley and one or two grasses 

 may possibly serve as hosts for the parasite. It is, however, certain, 

 that oats are exempt from this disease, and the experience of farmers 

 bears this out, for although Dr. Cobb (11), speaks of take-all in oats, 

 yet, on his own showing, quite a common and different fungus was 

 present, not the wheat-stem-killer, and he significantly adds — " The 

 soil where the plants were most unhealthy, seemed damp and cold and 

 forbidding." Oats grow well on take-all patches, and after two or 

 three crops, the fungus dies out, because it is deprived of its natural 

 food, and wheat may be safely grown again. But it must be 

 remembered that the minute reproductive bodies may survive for a 

 long time in the soil, and the land may become reinfected by blown 

 sand, &c., so that this method lessens the evil, but does not entirely 

 remove it. And here it may be well to point out, that growing wheat 

 after wheat on the same land is not only bad farming practice, but it 

 is the surest means of perpetuating the fungus in the soil, as a fresh 

 crop of the fungus is produced year after year. A rotation is wanted 

 which will keep the land clear and in good heart, and at the same time 

 be inimical to the fungus, for it has been said that in Europe, 

 leguminous crops, such as peas, beans, clovers, &c., render the wheat- 

 plant more suceptible to this disease, by favouring the growth of the 

 fungus. Whether the same result would follow here remains to be 

 determined, but the question is not of much importance as yet, 

 because in most of our wheat districts these crops cannot be grown. 

 It may also be possible to circumvent the fungus, by rendering the 

 surroundings- unfavourable to its dev elopement, and working the soil 

 so that it is hindered in its spread. 



It is a general opinion among farmers, taking a number of average 

 seasons into account, that crops on early fallowed hind, with plenty of 

 rain, escape the take-all, for this exposes the soil to the continued 

 action of the sun, and the humid condition favours the germination of 

 the spores, so that their death would probably soon ensue in the 

 absence of suitable plants to live upon. On the other hand a late 

 fallow, followed by a dry season, is regarded by many as worse than 

 no fallow at all, since this would probably cause the spores to remain 

 quiescent, and only to germinate about the same time as the wheat- 

 plant. Dry-worked land is found to be very subject to it, for this 

 simply encourages the spread of the spores, and allows the fine fila- 

 ments of the fungus to grow freely and reach the roots of the wheat- 



