436 NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



Like the clover pest, this one is from Europe, where it is de- 

 structive, and tobacco and hemp culture is sometimes suspended for 

 a time upon badly-infested areas, that the soil may become cleared 

 of this root parasite. 



ERGOT UPON GRASS. 



Mr. A. M. Newman, Delaware, Warren county, made complaint,, 

 early in the season, of a growth upon the grass of a low meadow, 

 which, upon the examination of specimens, proved to be an ergot. 

 The grass in question is known as " Reed Canary Grass " (Phalari» 

 Arundinacea L. ), which produces a rank growth of fair herbage, 

 surmounted by plumes six inches or more in length. In these heads 

 the ergot appears as dark, hard masses, which look like enlarged 

 grains, while in fact they are due to a fungus that takes possession 

 of the grain when quite small, and, instead of an ordinary seed, a 

 hard body is produced several times the size of the normal grain. 

 See Plate IX. 



A similar growth is met with upon the rye and many of the grains- 

 and grasses. When upon the rye it is often called "Spurred Rye," 

 because of the hard grains, being, in size, shape and extreme hard- 

 ness, somewhat like the spurs of a cock. These ergots are all pecu- 

 liar in being very poisonous, and that upon the rye, when grown 

 with the ordinary grains and eaten in bread, has often proved fatal 

 to the human subject. This fungus growth produces a disease known 

 as "ergotism," which is recognized by a loss of the use of the 

 extremities. Thus, a person may lose a finger or a whole hand, by 

 a sort of amputation, the circulation stopping and the part decaying 

 away, leaving the stump of finger, arm or leg. When live-stock eat 

 the ergoted grass in excess, the animals suffer in the same way from 

 ergotism. Whole herds have perished in the West from this cause, 

 as have entire villages of people in Europe, the latter largely because 

 of a lack of care in separating the diseased grains from the others. 



It is well for farmers to be aware of the nature of the outgrowths 

 that may occur upon the heads of grains and grasses, and take any 

 precautions necessary to avoid ergotism. 



As the disease is confined to the heads, it follows that live-stock 

 run no risks in ordinary pasturage until the grasses go to seed. 



It is a fact that the ergoted grasses are more apt to be in the low 

 land than where the soil is dry, and it is from the wild grass along, 

 streams that the most trouble is apt to arise. 



