670 



WHEAT 



WHEAT 



wire instead of twine'. When a proper knotting 

 device had been devised, the self-binder made pos- 

 sible a great expansion of the wheat industry. In 

 many parts of the West the header is commonly 

 used, but only in those regions where the wheat 

 can be left standing after maturity until it can be 

 harvested. With this machine only sufficient straw 

 is cut to insure gathering the heads of the grain. 

 The header cuts ten to twelve feet wide, and is 

 pushed forward through the grain by six or eight 

 horses. The headed grain may be taken immediately 

 to the thresher or shocked. 



The threshing of grain where the header or self- 

 binder is used is generally done by threshers oper- 



succeeding crop becoming infected through the 

 blossoms. No satisfactory treatment has as yet 

 been worked out. The stinking smut or "bunt" 

 (caused by Tilletia tritici or T. fytens) destroys 

 only the kernel. It may be prevented by the use of 

 either of the following solutions : 



(1) Formalin: Use a solution of one pound of 

 formalin to iifty gallons of water. Sprinkle the 

 wheat, covering aftferwards with cloths soaked in 

 the solution, or immerse the sacks for thirty 

 minutes. 



(2) Blue Stone. Make a solution of copper sul- 

 fate at the rate of one pound to five gallons of 

 water; immerse the sacks for ten minutes and 



Fig. 905. 



Hessian fly {Mayetiola destructor)! 

 adult temale. (rrom Webster.) 



Fig. 906. 



Hessian fly; adult male. 



(From Marlatt.) 



Fig. 907. 



Hessian fly; side view of female. 



(From Burgess.) 



ated by steam- or horse-power. Various devices 

 calculated to reduce manual labor to a minimum 

 are employed in this connection : self-feeders, band 

 cutters, straw carriers, elevators and sackers are 

 all used, and even attachments to bale the straw 

 for market directly from the thresher. By far the 

 larger part of the wheat crop in the United States 

 is cut by the binder and threshed directly from 

 the field. 



Enemies. 



Insects. — The wheat plant has many enemies to 

 contend with in the form of insect pests, fungous 

 diseases and weeds of many sorts. The two most 

 injurious insect enemies are the chinch-bug and the 

 Hessian fiy (Figs. 905-907). The annual losses 

 caused by these two pests in the wheat-fields of 

 the United States is beyond estimate, but will run 

 into millions of dollars. ,Remedies to counteract 

 their ravages are largely preventive ; in the case 

 of the chinch-bug, by clean tillage and rotation of 

 crops, and of the Hessian fly by late seeding, burn- 

 ing stubble and otherwise hindering the propaga- 

 tion of the brood. Other insect pests may at times 

 cause local damage to the wheat crop, but are of 

 less importance. 



Diseases. — Two rusts commonly occur on wheat, 

 the early orange leaf-rust {Puceinia rubigo-vera) 

 and the late stem-rust {Piiceinia graminis, occurring 

 also on oats). These rusts may also destroy the 

 crop within a few days. Rust is now being con- 

 trolled by growing resistant varieties. Of wheat 

 smuts there are two : The loose smut {Ustilago 

 tritici) matures its spores at blossoming time, the 



then drain and dry. Care must be taken to 

 apply the solution to all vessels and machinery 

 used wherever the seed might become infested by 

 contact. 



Loose smut is not controlled by either of these 

 methods. No entirely satisfactory method is known. 

 A modified form of hot-water treatment is recom- 

 mended. 



Literature. 



Klippert, The Wheat Plant ; Sargent, Corn Plants; 

 Lyon and Montgomery, Examining and Grading 

 Grains ; Hunt, The Cereals in America ; Snyder, 

 Chemistry of Plant and Animal Life ; Edgar, The 

 Story of a Grain of Wheat ; Jago, Milling of 

 Wheat ; Kornicke and Werner, Handbuch d e s 

 Getreidebaues ; Schindler, Der Weizen in Seinem 

 Beziehung zum Klima ; Salms-Laubach, Weizen 

 und Tulpe, und deren Geschichte, Leipzig, 1899 ; 

 Report of the Twelfth Census of the United States. 

 Bulletins of the Division of Physiology and Pathology 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture : 

 No. 16, Carleton, Cereal Rusts of the United States ; 

 No. 24, Carleton, Basis for the Improvement of 

 American Wheats ; No. 29, Hays, Plant Breeding. 

 Bulletins of the Bureau of Plant Industry : No. 3, 

 Carleton, Macaroni Wheats; No. 47, Scofield, 

 Description of Wheat Varieties ; No. 78, Lyon, 

 Improving the Quality of Wheat ; No. 79, Harter, 

 Variability of Wheat Varieties in Resistance to 

 Toxic Salts. Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin 

 No. 11. The experiment station publications, and 

 many others that may be traced through the Ex- 

 periment Station Record. 



