1850. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



137 



lDI)tat ^ttsbanlira. 



"RUST" ON WHEAT. 



It is sometimes surprising to observe the propensity 

 which is shown by many persons, to be mystified in 

 regard to some of the most simple operations of 

 Nature: overlooking the simple and direct manner in 

 which she always produces effects, men frequently 

 appear to be deluded with the idea that there must be 

 some hidden and secret workings in Nature's labor- 

 atory, not visible to the vulgar eye, by which she 

 introduces into being many of her most trivia! pro- 

 ductions. Hence, many learned men attempt to 

 explore some indirect and round-about way of dis- 

 covering the origin of things ; and by so doing, often- 

 times lead others into error, thereby verifying the 

 adage of " the blind leading the blind." An instance 

 of this kind may be found in regard to the cause of 

 the "rust" of wheat ; respecting which, in the mind 

 of an observing, practical farmer, there is not a 

 shadow of doubt or mystery ; but in the minds of 

 nearly all of those who have written upon that sub- 

 ject, all seems dark and mysterious ; consequently 

 they have fabricated the most unnatural and irrational 

 hypotheses. Some writers have supposed the rust 

 to be a " fungus plant," having " invisible seeds, 

 which were carried by the wind among the standing 

 grain, and coming into contact with the straws and 

 leaves, were received into their pores, where they 

 took root, grew, and fed upon the sap ; thus robbing 

 the grain of its nourishment" ! Other writers have 

 conjectured that the " invisible seeds" were lodged 

 in the ground, whence, having been received into the 

 mouths of the small sap vessels, they entered into 

 the circulation with the sap of the plant — that by 

 some of nature's mysterious operations they finally 

 burst the external covering of the stem and leaves, 

 grew upon them as a fungus parasite, robbed the 

 plant of its juices, and caused the grain to "shrink." 

 And " last, though not least," of all the preposterous 

 conjectures concocted in the liuman brain, in regard 

 to this subject, is the new supposition, that " as the 

 wheat plant, when about to head, has been known to 

 send a tap root four feet into the earth, to procure 

 nutriment, (!) it comes in contact with cold clay, or 

 a sour, wet sub-soil, turns back in dispair, and dies ;" 

 — that, "in accordance with the laws of nature, 

 insects, or rust, which is itself a fungus, or vegetable 

 insect, comes to finish the work of devastation on the 

 dying wheat" ! Shade of Ceres ! deliver us from 

 such tissues of absurdities ! ! ! It is not enough, it 

 seems, that we must lose our wheat crops by rust, 

 "in the natural way," but we must have our craniums 

 crammed (I had almost said cracked,) with these 

 ridiculous conceits of rusty brained writers, who, it 

 would seem, knew as little of the subject about which 

 they wrote, as a goat does of Algebra ! 



But seriously : these fine spun hypotheses and 

 net-works of mysteries are quite too absurd to satisfy 

 the mind. 'Tis true they are sent forth as supposi- 

 tions and conjectures only ; but what sensible, prac- 

 tical man, can, for a moment, entertain such prepos- 

 terous suppositions and conjectures ? Who ever 

 discovered a plai.t of any description, fungus or other, 

 growing out of and feeding upon the living matter of 

 another plant ; the former subsisting upon and rob- 

 bing the latter of its juices, so as to prevent it from 

 perfecting its seeds ? There may be, and no doubt 

 are, many things that my " philosophy never dreamed 



of." I may be told of the " mistletoe" growing upon 

 the oak, and of the " live-for-ever," "growing upon 

 nothing." Be it so : but, I ask, has any one ever 

 yet discovered that the mistletoe robs the former of 

 its juices ? No one, I believe, will assert that it does, 

 any more than thai the " live-for-ever" robs the latter. 

 There is no parasitica' "'fungus" growing upon 

 the living wheat plant in tne 'orm of "rust;" what 

 has been supposed to be a "lUi.j'Us" upon it, is 

 nothing but the crude and undigested »^t of the plant 

 itself, whicli, by the rupture of the sap vessels, runs 

 out and dries on the outside of the straw and leaves. 

 The rupture of the sap vessels is caused by a too 

 vigorous growth of the straw, and consequently a 

 redundancy of sap, induced by warm, damp, and 

 " growing weather," early in the season of spring. 

 If, during this plethoric state of the plant, with its 

 sap vessels distended to their utmost capacity, and 

 just as the grains begin to form in the head, a few 

 days of excessively hot weather come on, the heat 

 swells the sap, and thus ruptures the sap vessels in 

 an immense number of places on the straw anJ leaves. 

 When the sap first runs out of the rui>tured vessels, 

 it is clear and like water : in a few hours, however, 

 it begins to change its color to a dull red, in which 

 state it is called " red rust ;" in the course of a day 

 or two it usually changes to a dark brown color, and 

 it is then called " black rust." The effect in the 

 latter case is. that so much of the sap of the plant is 

 withdrawn from it and wasted, that the seed or grain 

 is not filled out, and the produce is called " shrunk 

 wheat." If the hot weather comes on after a large 

 portion of the grain is formed, and continues for a 

 short time, (from one to two days only,) the straw 

 is "struck'" with "red rust," and the grain is then 

 generally but little shrunk. If the excessively hot 

 weather occurs at an early period of the filling out 

 of the grain, and continues two, three, or four days, 

 the wheat is usually "struck" with black rust," (the 

 rust within that time generally becoming dark color- 

 ed,) and the grain is then, most commonly, very much 

 shrunk. The injury done to the crop is in proportion 

 to the redundancy of sap and the degree of heat. 

 Any person having good eyesight can, at the proper 

 season, see the whole process without the aid of a 

 lens, or magnifying glass. I observed it closely, with 

 and without a lens, many consecutive years, during 

 which time my wheat crop was very much injured, 

 and sometimes almost destroyed, by rust. My land 

 was in good condition and well cultivated. I was 

 then in the habit of sowing plaster on such of my 

 wheat fields as I had seeded witli clover, for the pur- 

 pose of making the clover seed take well. It had 

 the desired effect upon the clover ; but after several 

 years of experience and observation, I discovered that 

 the plaster caused a superfluous growth of straw with 

 a redundancy of sap, which, with very hot weather, 

 nearly destroyed my crops of wheat. Since I have 

 abandoned the practice of sowing plaster, I have had 

 but little rusty wheat, and what I have had was on 

 black muck soil. The intervale lands (swales) fre- 

 quently produce rusty wheat, because of the richness 

 of the soil in them, and consequent excess of sap in 

 the straw, when the uplands produce wheat free from 

 rust. The latter, not having so much black muck, 

 or vegetable mold, in its composition, produces less 

 straw and less sap in the sap vessels of the plant. 

 More or less rust, however, is found almostevery 

 year, in the swales, where the coldness of the soil 

 retards the growth of the plant in the early part of 



