112 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



13. Remedies for the Fungoid Diseases of Wheat 

 already described To some extent in the last paragraph, 

 taking up Professor Hind's view of the cause of rust, some 

 of the remedies have been indicated ; and the reader in- 

 terested in other modes will find those usually adopted in 

 practice described in Part I., WHEAT, of this present series, 

 beginning at par. 10., p. 23. 



Some sanguine cultivators believe that it is possible, by 

 care, to exterminate the fungi which produce bunt and 

 smut in wheat, but that this hope is not well founded is 

 evident enough when we remember that it is not the wheat 

 alone which is infected with them, but the grasses which 

 grow in our pastures, and moreover which is worse in 

 those which nourish at our roadside. The sources then of 

 a supply of sporules being so numerous, it seems as if the 

 farmer was driven to one point only, care in the selection of 

 the seed ; and with reference to this point Professor Henslow 

 throws out what we conceive to be a most important sug- 

 gestion, namely, the setting aside some portion of his land 

 for the careful cultivation of seed wheat. There may be, 

 he says, some practical reason which forbids this being 

 done ; but it seems nevertheless to him that it would be 

 " always worth while for every farmer to set aside some 

 portion of ground to be more carefully tended than the rest 

 for the purpose of securing good and perfectly clean seed. 

 Among other reasons for such a practice, he would then be 

 able to weed his crop from every plant infected with bunt 

 or smut, before the fungi ripened." When we consider 

 how small a space of ground would be required to raise 

 seed sufficient for a large breadth of the wheat crop, it is 

 difficult to see why objections could be made to this very 

 common-sense plan. True, the careful cleaning of this 

 plot, and the not less careful weeding out of infected grains, 

 would be troublesome ; but if the trouble which the plan 

 would involve is all the objection that can be raised to it, 

 why then no more need be said. We nevertheless believe 

 that a large proportion of the success which we wish to 

 believe yet remains for the future of agriculture, lies in the 



