RUST AND INTENSIVE CULTIVATION 159 



one can hardly travel a few miles in arable districts 

 when the corn is ripening without recognising its 

 distinctive rich red chaff and highly polished 

 straw. 



Though the resistance of Little Joss to yellow 

 rust is very marked it is not as complete as that 

 of American Club. But the hybrids of this latter 

 variety have not yet reached the stage at which 

 they can be distributed generally and consequently 

 independent trials of their value cannot be quoted. 

 All that can be said at present is that they fulfil 

 expectations and that there is every possibility 

 of their displacing the one rust-resisting type now 

 in cultivation here. 



The experimental work with these rust-resistant 

 wheats is gradually bringing to light other points 

 of interest associated with this feature. It is now 

 becoming clear that rust attacks are partly, though 

 by no means entirely, responsible for weakness of 

 the straw. In varieties which are particularly 

 badly attacked the straw always becomes light and 

 spongy in texture, these faults increasing with the 

 severity of the attack. Such enfeebled straws 

 cannot possibly carry a heavy crop of grain even 

 if the plants could produce one. The fact is of 

 some immediate importance, for intensive cultiva- 

 tion, one of the crying needs of the future, will 

 inevitably make for increasingly severe attacks of 

 rust and other fungoid diseases. At present our 

 crops are grown with little more than the food 



