118 



Treatment of Seed Oats for Rust. 



There is no reason to think that any treatment of seed oats will be 

 beneficial in preventing rust. This question has arisen more than 

 once. The question has been very carefully studied, and the best 

 authorities agree that no treatment of the seed has ever been shown 

 to be beneficial in preventing rust, though it is different with smut 

 another disease of oats. 



Rusty Oats as Fodder. 



Rusty oat plants, so long as they are still alive and fairly green,., 

 may be used as fodder with comparative impunity. The nutritive 

 value of rusty oats is less than that of non-rusty oats, and that 

 is about all that can be said. After the tissues are killed, as the 

 result of rust, the fermenting dead and dying parts are unsuitable 

 for fodder, and will not be chosen by stock if succulent food is at 

 hand. Any doubt on this point may be inexpensively settled through 

 a co-operative experiment by feeding a healthy animal upon rusty 

 oats. 



Sunflower Rust. 

 Puccinia Helianthi, Schw. 



The Sunflower also suffers from the attacks of a rust. The disease 

 is rather common in this State and the attacks are sometimes of a 

 serious character, the yield of seed being much diminished. As,. 

 however, the crop is one of minor importance it has never been 

 possible among the numerous calls of a more important character to- 

 give any detailed attention to this disease. The present paragraph 

 is merely the outcome of the slight accumulation of data I find on hand 

 as the result of semi-occasional specimens and inquiries. 



The appearance of the disease, as manifested on the Sunflower 

 is unmistakable, and needs little description. In all well-marked cases 

 the leaves become covered with a rust-coloured powder composed 

 entirely of the spores of the rust fungus. There 

 ^/7~^ is no other disease of the Sunflower that is at all 



likely to be confounded with it. The disease 

 may occur on the stalks and parts of the flower, 

 but the main attack is on the leaves. These 

 soon loose their normal green colour and droop 

 and die. In the worst cases the plant may die,, 

 though this is not often the case. The yield is-- 

 much diminished, and the quality of the seed 

 is reduced. 



The disease also attacks the varieties cultivated 

 for their flowers alone, and it is just as destruc-* 

 tive to them as to other varieties. 



The remedies that may be adopted are not- 

 such as have been sufficiently tested. They are 

 derived from what is known to be true in other- 



Fie 1 129 Spores of the rust , , . ml / 1 \ j. i 



of the sunflower. somewhat analogous instances. Iney are, ( 1) tne 



application of Bordeaux mixture, (2) the pluck- 

 ing of all infected leaves as soon as they appear to be a source of 

 danger to the healthy parts of the plants, (3) thinning out the 



