GOS 

 Wf& 



Rust or Mildew on Wheat Plants, 



MEMORANDUM. 



THE Board of Agriculture, having had repeatedly brought 

 under their notice the extensive losses sustained by agriculturists 

 from the presence of Rust or Mildew in wheat, have deemed it 

 desirable to publish the following summary of the information 

 collected in the summer of 1892 from various observers of the 

 circumstances of this year's attack in different parts of England. 



In order, at the same time, to place before wheat growers the 

 conclusions of former investigations, and the results of the more 

 recent researches into this matter abroad, and in order to recall 

 attention to the leading features of the life history of this destruc- 

 tive and widely-prevalent fungus, Mr. Whitehead was requested 

 to append to his report on the replies of the representative 

 agriculturists, selected by him to give their experience in the 

 past season, a series of more general notes on the points above 

 indicated. He has also materially increased the usefulness of the 

 report by the coloured illustrations supplied, exhibiting the various 

 phases of the fungoid attacks now the subject of examination. 



It is to be regretted that out of 144 agriculturists addressed 

 by the Board in June last, with a request for co-operation by sup- 

 plying the details of their experience, only thirty-seven have found 

 themselves in a position to furnish precise replies founded on 

 their own observations to the schedule of questions issued. 

 The reports received, however, embrace the experience of gentle- 

 men residing in as many as twenty-six different counties. In all 

 but seven of these counties more or less disastrous attacks of 

 rust were experienced in 1892. Few indications of novel ex- 

 planations of the phenomena in question have been supplied 

 by the reporters, although the connection between extensive 

 attacks of mildew and sudden atmospheric changes and un- 

 timely frosts has again, as in all earlier inquiries, formed a 

 prominent subject of comment. 



74690. 3000. 3/93. Wt. 19066. A 2 



