lo April, ipi !•] Field Experimenis wiiJi Wheat Diseases. 251 



Take-all. — This disease is overl<x>ked altogether in a favourable wheat 

 year, though it occurs to some extent every year. Only when the crops are 

 badly attacked, do farmers become alive to the extent of their loss. The 

 reason is partly that the various forms of the disease are not always recog- 

 nised. In a mild attack, the ears are only slightly discoloured and flat 

 or slab-sided instead of being well filled ; such heads contain only thm 

 pinched grain. Then there is the form of the disease where the ears pro- 

 duce no grain and the chaff stands out from the heads which present a 

 bleached appearance known as " Whiteheads." In the worst cases no 

 heads at all are produced and, in all stages, a blackening of the stalk at the 

 foot is characteristic of the disease. 



During the second week of December, fifty-one farmers of repute 

 in the Horsham, Pimpinio, Vectis East. Jung, and Murtoa districts were 

 visited with the object of gaining information in regard to the best methods 

 of cultivation. Mr. McAlpine, in his bulletin on Take-all, suggests that 

 preventive measures might be found in a certain method of working the soil. 

 After tabulating the answers to the set of questions propounded to each 

 farmer, we, however, gathered no conclusive evidence that such was the 

 case. Some farmers who cultivated their land thoroughly and others who 

 worked the ground but little had their crops equally badly affected with 

 Take-all. It is generallv found that burning off stubble is beneficial, 

 though the evidence did not show any direct preventive effect from the 

 practice. Wheat after oats was rarely found badly affected ; it dees not 

 pay, however, to fallow for oats — it is more profitable to grow wheat on the 

 fallow land and oats on the stubble. 



Crop rotation, as Mr. McAlpine recommends, should be carried out; 

 this again is a matter of £, s. d., though the expansion of the lamb-raising 

 industry may render it practicable. At present, straw crops are almost 

 exclusively grown in the Wimmera as the rainfall suits winter sown cereals. 



Table I. shows the prevalence f)f the disease this season— the paddock 

 was fairly representative of the land under crop in the district. The .seed 

 used was plump and graded but not pickled, as it was known to be clean. 

 Sowing was done by hand, single grains being dropped at every six inches 

 in rows one foot apart; it was thus an easy matter to count the plants. 

 There was no Bunt or Ball-smut in the crop. 



The Take-all affected plants were found occurring in patches more or 

 less extensive and in all classes of soil. The disease was not confined to 

 badly drained situations, being also found on the high ground. The " par- 

 tially affected " plants product-d some healthy and some diseased ears. It 

 was quite a common thing, when harvesting single selected plants, to find 

 half-a-dozen of the ears pinched and diseased. The "wholly diseased" 

 plants produced no marketable grain. The crossbred seed sown was of 

 the second generation and the most vigorous and healthy class of grain it is 

 possible to obtain ; that of the fixtd varieties had been selected or pedi- 

 greed for two years and was l<'ss vigorous, as the table indicates, than the 

 crossbred seed. Ordinarv grain, not selected or even graded, would no 

 doubt have shown a still lower pi-rct-ntage of healthv plants. Finding that 

 Federation was the varietv most ;ifTected with other diseases, th«' plants 

 which had Loose, Flag and Ball smiit were only counti'il in the case o( that 

 wheat. 



Take-all (?) in Oats awl Harhv.— \ disease resembling Take-all was 

 noticed as occurring to a limited extent among the varieties of oats .ind 

 barley growing on our plots. Spec imens were forwarded to Mr. McAlpine. 

 who ifound a little Rust on the o.fs and H ehttinthi'^poriuw fungus on l>otii 



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