BREAD OR BARBERRIES 11 



work and the cost of the crop an<l all the waitin<r and liopinp have 

 gone for nothing. Instead of feasting, there is hunger. 



There liave been nianv siuh grievous harvests in many lands, for 

 often the wheat would sicken and be unaltle to grow kernels Ht for 

 flour. Long ago sueh sickness of the wheat was called mildew. In 

 ancient days the Romans held a festival in Ai)ril and ottered sacri- 

 fices with a ceremony that they hoped would pi'oteft their fields from 

 mildew. In one of Shakespeare's plays we read that " The foul fiend 

 Flibbertigibbet mildews the white wheat."' 



"We liave this same disease of wheat in America. We do not call 

 it mildew now. AVe call it black stem rust, the fungus which lives 

 part of its life on the barberry from which it spreads to grasses and 

 grains. 



Every year some areas of wheat (and such other valuable grains 

 as oats, barley, and rye) are stricken with black stem rust. For a 

 long time now this dreadful disease has ruined million^ of bushels 

 of wheat in the Ignited States every year. One year, during the 

 "World "War. when the farmers were trying to grow more wheat than 

 usual to make bread for tlie soldiers, there was an epidemic of this 

 terrible rust of wheat which destroyed hundreds of millions of 

 bushels. 



This situation is serious for the grain farmers. Indeed, some 

 farmers have become discouraged about growing wheat because it is 

 so likely to be spoiled by the rust. 



If less wheat is harvested, fewer plows and harrows and seeders 

 and reapers will be needed, and there Avill be less work for the men 

 who make such farm maehinery. 



If less wheat is harvested, fewer trains and ships will be needed to 

 carry the crop from the fields to the mills; and, of course, there will 

 be less work for men on trains and ships. 



If less wheat eomes to the mills, what will that mean to the millers 

 and other jx'ople in such great milling centers as Minneapolis, where 

 now hundreds of thousands of barrels of flour are gioimtl each week i 



If less flour comes out of the mills, less cotton will Ije needed for 

 clotli sacks and less lumber for barrels and less pidpwood for paper bags 

 and boxes, and so the cotton grower and the hnriberman will suffer. 



Thus you can see that it is not the farmer alone who has a fearfid 

 enemy in the barberry tliat carries the rust Avith its spores blowing 

 over his wheat fields. In<lee<l. you might try to see if you can think of 

 any business that is not souiehow aflccieil by the wheat crop and by the 

 welfare of the jx'ople wlio woik, tlirectly or iiMJirectly. with wheat. 



Of course you do not ne(M| to be iciuinded that less flour means less 

 bread and muflins and macaroni and cookies and cakes and pies. 

 You may be surjjrised, however, to learn how many other foods nee<l 

 flour to make them good. A cookbook in common use in the Fnited 

 States during the past 150 yeais contains more llian l.dOO reci|)es that 

 call for the use of flour or of something made with flour. Many a 

 dish of meat or Acgetables is better to ta'-te and to look at, aM well 

 as better in food value, because i( has been rolled in bread crumbs or 

 thickened with flour or served on toast or <ifher\\i^e combined with 

 the gi-ound jjowder of the wheat se<'d. 



The grave danger which threatens our food supjdy and busines.s 

 of many sorts would be unsj)eakably terrifying if theie were nothing 



