470 FIRING, 
after the plants are transplanted, their growth and devel- 
opment is greatly hindered. When, however, the plants 
are nearly grown, a severe drought affects the plants but 
little, the large palm-like leaves forming a kind of canopy 
and keeping the earth moist and cool. During a wet season, 
and sometimes when the plants have been set in damp soil, 
they are affected by “brown rust,” or, as it is called at the 
South, 
FIRING. 
It is supposed to be caused by very damp weather, and is 
much dreaded by all growers of the weed,-as it is sometimes 
quite common, and on low soil affects the crop to a consider- 
able extent. It spots the leaf with hard brown spots that 
often fall out, producing holes fatal to the value of the crop. 
. ‘The lower leaves on the 
plant are more likely to 
be injured than those 
higher on the stalk. 
The spots vary in size ; 
sometimes they are as 
large as a three cent 
piece, but more fre- 
quently about the size 
of a small pearl button: 
At the South, rust or 
“firing” is much more 
common than in the 
Connecticut valley, and 
often whole fields are 
badly affected by the 
FIRING. malady. Some seasons 
-hardly any rust can 
be discovered on the leaves, and if any spots are found 
they are fixed and do not spread. 
Small plants are more liable to be injured than large ones, 
and not unfrequently nearly every leaf is covered with the 
spots. Many theories have been advanced in regard to the 
