WHEAT IMPROVEMENT IN AUSTRALIA. 



Reference has been made to the fact that the qualities which confer rust- 

 resistance locally are by no means identical with those which are required in 

 other countries. The disease itself exhibits certain characteristics which 

 differentiate it from European or American rusts. Mr. D. McAlpine, who 

 is the Australian authority on the subject, finds that of the three kinds of 

 rust which attack the wheat-plant, namely Puccinia graminis, or Black rust 

 (Summer), Puccinia dispersa, or Brown rust (Spring), and Puccinia 

 glumarum, or Yellow rust (Spring), the only one that is destructive in 

 Australia is P. graminis; of the others, P. glumarum does not occur in 

 Australia, and P. dispersa does little or no damage. 



Mr. McAlpine has further shown that the life history of the Black rust 

 in Australia differs from its life history in Europe and America. A notable 

 example is the fact established by him that the barberry, which is said to 

 act as intermediary host for this fungus in Europe, does not function in this 

 capacity in Australia. McAlpine concludes that the principal harbourers of 

 the disease in the intermediate (aecidio-spore) stage locally are the grasses, 

 cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), and tall or 

 meadow oat-grass (Avena elatior). 



Mr. McAlpine's principal work in this connection has been carried on for 

 a number of years in experimental -plots at Port Fairy on the Victorian 

 coast, a district particularly liable to rust. Here a great number of wheats 

 have been under observation for many years, including selected strains of 

 varieties known to be fairly rust-resistant and many of Mr. Farrer's crosses. 



As early as 1898 Mr. McAlpine was able to report * that " it may be safely 

 asserted that sufficient has now been done by way of experiment to show 

 that our wheats may be greatly improved, and that rust-resisting strains may 

 be reared." . . . . " Here, in a district which is admitted to be one of 

 the most liable to rust, wheats have been under trial as long as eight years, 

 and have stood the test." 



Mr. J. T. Pridham, Plant-breeder to the New South Wales Department of 

 Agriculture, and a successor to the late Mr. W. Farrer, also reports that as the 

 result of the work in New South Wales considerable success has attended the 

 creation of rust-escaping varieties, and that for the last few years little 

 damage has been done in the coastal districts of New South Wales, where 

 the disease had been so bad as practically to stop the cultivation of wheat. 



Certain quick-maturing varieties (amongst the best of which is a Farrer 

 cross-bred known as Warren) actually yield better under rusty conditions 

 than others which are more resistant to rust but mature later. 



At the same time, early maturity is not in itself a sufficient protection 

 against rust, as some of the earliest wheats are amongst the most rust-liable. 

 The Indian wheats are examples of this. 



A great deal of work in the direction of selecting and testing rust- 

 resistant varieties has been done at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, 

 near Sydney. Though this is not a wheat-growing district, it is very subject 



* Guides to Growers, No. 37. Wheat experiments, season 1897-98, issued by 

 the Department of Agriculture, Victoria. 



