1898.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 59 



This rust, like tlie well-known one of the wheat, has three 

 different stages or forms in its development, though in this 

 case they are all developed upon the asparagus plant, while 

 in the other, one form comes upon the barberry bush and 

 the other two upon the wheat and other grains and grasses. 

 When first noticed in 1896, the asparagus rust was in the 

 fall stage, the black rust or teleuto stage, the earlier stages 

 not having attracted attention. In 1897 many asparagus 

 fields were found to be affected as early as July 1, and by 

 August the complaint was general throughout the asparagus- 

 growing sections of the State. It was now the red rust, or 

 uredo form, which was present, being followed again in the 

 fall by the black form. Apparently almost every field of 

 asparagus in the State was affected before the end of the 

 season. The rust in most cases appeared first on young 

 beds, — which was natural to expect, since the stalks were 

 not being continually cut off as they appeared. In the older 

 beds, from which the stalks were being cut for market, little 

 or no rust appeared until well into July or August, after 

 cutting had been suspended and the tops allowed to develop. 

 In most cases, however, they were soon affected as badly as 

 any. The effect of the rusting w^as that the tops lost their 

 green color, and turned brown and died prematurely. Mr. 

 George P. Davis of Bedford says in regard to his beds : 

 " The twenty-sixth of July the tops were all turned brown, 

 and looked as though a fire had swept over the field. There 

 was no green to be seen. ... In handling the tops a fine 

 dust which looked like smoke was quite noticeable." This 

 dust consisted of countless numbers of the spores of the 

 fungus. 



The first attempts at checking the rust were made in the 

 fall of 1896, and consisted of cuttins: and burning affected 

 tops. When the disease appeared so extensively in 1897, 

 many growers cut the tops in August, when they had 

 become badly rusted. It is impossible to say with much 

 certainty what the result of the first cutting (fall of 1896) 

 may have been, inasmuch as comparatively few beds were 

 thus treated or badly affected at that time. A good-sized 

 bed at the college was considerably rusted, and the tops 



t 



