RUST, SMUT, ETC. Ill 



Indiana, affected with almost equal destructiveness all kinds of 

 wheat crops, and on all sorts of soil. 



194. From 1840 to 184G, rust was common and most destruc- 

 tive in the States of the Union, but in 1847 little complaint was 

 made of its ravages. 



195. In 1849 it was very destructive. Mr. A. Ruff of Xenia, 

 Ohio, states that rust destroys much wheat and has been con- 

 stantly increasing for the last 12 years.(^) 



196. During the same year, and on the same authority, we 

 read : " The enemies of wheat in this vicinity (Racine) are the 

 weeA'il, mildew, and rust, the last having the present season des- 

 troyed one-half of the crop. 



197. In 1850 rust caused almost an entire failure of the wheat 

 crop, in all North-western Virginia. Every year more of less 

 rust is found in the States and Canada. It is, indeed, everywhere 

 prevalent, and we are always liable to rust years. It is equally 

 common in the high northern as in the middle wheat growing 

 States. In 1855 and 1856 it occasioned considerable damage to 

 the wheat crop in the County of Saguenay, C.E., common in 

 Thorah, Canada West.(2) 



198. It often happens that the crops over isolated tracts of 

 country are affected, generally in stripes, narrow and long. 

 These stripes are found to lie in valleys, or low situations ; on 

 new land rust is very destructive, the experience of every 

 Canadian farmer will serve to assure him of the tendency 'to rust ' 

 exhibited by crops grown on virgin soil or new land in low damp 

 situations. 



199. Rust is a fungus, a minute vegetable growth, which 

 throws that part of its structure serving the purposes of roots 

 through the tissue of the wheat plant, and lives upon the nou- 



(1) P. O. Report, 1849. 



(2) Rusl has occasioned ihe almost entire destruction of the wheat crop in iv>rt uf tlii* 

 township, during its universality. It is everywhere prevalent in America. 



