THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 



407 



illustration (Fig. 74), which represents the mildew of 

 wheat, greatly magnified. To the naked eye these beau 

 tiful fungi seem more like the minute particles of dust 

 on a miller s hat, than anything else. 



To the practical wheat grower the great question is : 

 What is mildew? what causes it? and, what is the 

 remedy f 



I answer in brief: Mildew is a disease of the grow 

 ing wheat. The plants are covered with a white sub 

 stance, which is made up of minute fungi, which ap 

 pear in spots on the straw. These parasites, repre 

 sented by Fig. 74, are minute 

 plants, growing on the wheat 

 plant, and extracting the juices 

 that should be appropriated to 

 the development of the grain. 

 After reading scores of pages 

 about mildew, in w^hich various 

 plausible theories are broached 

 by one author, and the same 

 theories controverted by an 

 other author of equally reliable 

 authority, I have to again ac 

 knowledge that we know little 

 about the cause, or the remedj^. 



By referring again to Fig. 

 74, it may be seen, that the 

 ends of the delicate creeping 

 threads bear spores, or sporules, Frr &quot; 75 -- Eust magnified. 

 which fall off, an 1 fly like dust, in the a : r. Some 

 times these spores form quite a little cloud. Strange 

 as it may appear, these infinitesimally small parti 

 cles of dust are seeds, so to speak, from which millions 



