Diseases of Cereals : Rust and Take-all in Wheat. 713 



just as cancer and consumption do the doctors, but still a good 

 beg-innino- has been made. Our American cousins have taken the 

 lead in this matter, and as a practical people, are as energetic in 

 stamping out disease as they are in finding new markets for 

 their ])roduce. 



Rust in Wheat- 



Time would fail me, and it would wearj^ you, to dwell upon the 

 numerous diseases which affect our cultivated crops, so I have chosen 

 for illustration two of the most important to the farmer, because of 

 the serious losses due to them, and in fact the depreciation of the 

 yield in the entire Commonwealth. It is a trite but true saying 

 " That it is not what a man makes but what he saves that constitutes 

 profit," and while every effort should be made to increase the quantity 

 and the quality of our produce, it is also necessary to guard against 

 avoidable losses. The loss from rust in wheat alone it is not easy to 

 calculate, but in the very rusty year of 1889 it was estimated, on 

 fairly reliable data, that it cost Australia £2,000,000. In a small way 

 it can also be reckoned when we compare the yields of two varieties 

 growing alongside of each other, the one rust-liable, the other 

 rust-resistant. During the past season, Queen's Jubilee and Rerraf 

 were grown in the Swan Hill district. The one which was very rusty 

 yielded three bags to the acre, and the other, which was clean, 

 yielded six bags, and although some allowance may require to be 

 made for the difference of yield due to the variety, still the loss 

 caused by rust was enormous. 



The total wheat crop of the Commonwealth was last year not far 

 short of 80,000,000 bushels, which at 3s. a bushel gives £12,000,000 

 as the value of the crop. Of this 28,356,082 bushels is the estimated 

 yield for Victoria according to the preliminary returns issued by the 

 (lovernment Statist, valued at about £4,250,000. 



Although the rust has been known from remote antiquity, and the 

 ancient Romans offered up sacrifices to protect their wheat from 

 mildew on 25th April of each year, still its true nature was not under- 

 stood until the latter half of the eighteenth century. 



As late as 1733, Jethro Tull, writing about it in his "Horse-hoeing 

 Husbandry," attributes it to the attacks of small insects " brought, 

 some think, by the east wind, which feed upon the wheat, leaving 

 their excreta as black spots upon the straw, as is shown by the 

 microscope." It was only in 1767 that its true nature as a fungus 

 was determined, and in 1797 it received the name which it still bears 

 of Puccinia graminis. 



The rust then is a fungus, and has much in common with the 

 wheat on which it grows. Both are plants, living ' and growing, 

 feeding and multiplying, decaying and dying. The one produces a 

 seed which germinates or sprouts under suitable conditions and grows 

 into a fresh wheat-plant. The other has also seed-like bodies or 

 spores, so conspicuous on the leaves and stem of the wheat, and these 

 germinate and grow into new plants. But the main difference between 



