8 April, 1907] Take-all and its Control. 255 



and a year in fallow to banish the disease. This, however, as all farmers 

 know is not often the case but an explanation is afforded bv the fact that 

 two, at least, of our most common grasses, both practically worthless or at 

 best not so valuable as others capable of growing under similar conditions, 

 are known to be attacked by this fungus. They are the spear grass 

 {Bromus sterilis) and barley grass {Hordciim muriniim) while a third, 

 sometimes called silver grass {Festuca bromoides), is strongly suspected 

 of being affected also. The two former unfortunately are rarely if ever 

 absent from our wheat paddocks, and it would be safe to say there is no 

 district in Victoria where they are not abundant. These two grasses 

 known to be attacked form a considerable proportion of the herbage spring- 

 ing up in stubble paddocks, while the silver grass is far and away the 

 most common on such land. Doubtless spear grass and barley grass serve 

 to carry over the disease, in cases such as that cited, to the autumn of 

 1906, furnishing spores ready to attack the newly-sown wheat. But, some 

 may argue, the bare fallow in 1905 would have destroved all the gra.ss 

 long before the wheat was sown. Certainly after a year as pasture an 

 early fallow before any of the grasses had time to mature their seed or the 

 fungus to produce its spores, a fallow well worked through the sum- 

 mer, would go a verv long wav towards starving out the fun- 

 gus, but owing to various causes much fallowing is done too 

 late to be of any service in this direction and still more, perhaps, is ne\er 

 touched at all till just before seeding. A late fallow permits the fungus 

 to mature its spores on the grass and these spores would form the souice 

 of infection for the crop sown in 1906. Hence the importance of early 

 fallow to check take-all and the uselessness of a late one. 



Working the land after rain through the spring and summer is almost 

 as important as earliness in fallowing. Even in an early fallow there is 

 the probability that a few autumn-grown grass plants would have a small 

 proportion of spores formed on them and the only wav to destroy these 

 spores is to set up conditions similar to those existing in a good seed bed. 

 By working the land after rain air is admitted and moisture conserved, 

 furnishing conditions favorable to the germination of these spores and 

 since there is nothing for them to grow upon they soon perish. On the 

 other hand if the ground remains unworked it quickly becomes dry and 

 hard so that it would be impossible to conceive conditions more favorable 

 for the preser\ation of these spores uninjured and in a fit condition for 

 attacking newlv-sown wheat in the autumn. 



Burning Stubble. 

 Burning stubble is not such a common practice as it once wa,Sj the 

 growing recognition of the value of the straw being responsible for the 

 change. Badly affected paddocks are best burned off, but this operation 

 must be carried out vvith some understanding of the object in view, the 

 destruction of the spores of the fungus. In the first place the usual 

 method of burning off is quite useless, since the take-all patches being 

 almost bare of anything in the wav of dry straw a proper burn is never 

 obtained over the parts where it is wanted but only where the disease has 

 not appeared. The harrows should be run over the stubble to draw straw 

 to the bad patches and the burn off accomplished as early as possible m 

 the season. 



Replacing Wheat vi-'ith a Crop not liable to the Disease. 

 Oats are frequently grown after a badlv-affected wheat crop often wit'i 

 considerable success in starvintr out the fungus but occasionally the results 



