THE WHEAT CROP. 67 



grain, and thus effectually preventing the chance of a 

 sickly, debilitated plant, which always offers a home 

 for the numerous enemies, insect as well as fungoid, that 

 accompany each stage of the existence of our wheat crops. 1 

 This is a subject worthy the notice of our agricultural 

 societies. A well-considered series of experiments, carried 

 on simultaneously in different soils and different climates, 

 could not but be beneficial to the agriculture of the 

 country. 2 The loss sustained by these diseases every year 

 is much larger than farmers generally imagine. 



"Rust" and "mildew" are other forms of fungoid disease, 

 confining their attacks to the straw, the leaf, and the 

 chaff. The former, known by the name also of " red-gum/' 

 * red -rag/' ''red -robin," is the Uredo Ruligo,a,nd. is 

 seen in the shape of yellowish, brown, or reddish oval 

 spots and blotches on the stem, leaves, and chaff of the 

 plant. As long as the leaves and stem only are attacked, 

 but little actual injury seems to be done. When, however, 

 it attacks the glumes (the ear), and other parts of the inflor- 

 escence, as is the case sometimes with delicate wheats on 

 rich soils, and in hot moist seasons, it frequently assumes 

 a serious character. The blotches or spots are occasioned 

 by the existence of the spores of the fungus beneath the 

 epidermis or scarf skin of the plant, through which they 

 burst when they arrive at maturity. These spores are 

 extremely minute, and are bound together by a network 

 similar to that already described. This fungus, which 

 would appear to attack most of the grasses, has been very 

 generally supposed to be identical with mildew. 3 This ques- 



1 This opinion is confirmed by the experiments by Professor Buckm an, in 

 Roy. Agri. Soc. Jour., vol. xvii. p. 175. 



2 In the Journal of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society (old 

 series), vol. xv., and in the British Husbandry of the Society for the Diffusion 

 of Useful Knowledge, vol. ii. p. 164, details are given of experiments with 

 steeped and unsteeped grain. 



3 Paper " On the Specific Identity of the Fungi producing Rust and Mildew," 

 by Rev. J. S. Henslow, Roy. Agri, Soc. Jour., vol. ii. p. 220. 



