176 



ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



where at best only a few weeks intervene between the gath- 

 ering of the crops and the hard frost of winter, the prac- 

 tical advantage of the six-day gain is often very consider- 

 able. 



XII. Earliness and Storms 



The early ripening habit of Marquis is prized in Min- 

 nesota, as well as in some other parts of the spring-wheat 

 belt, because it lessens the time during which the standing 

 crops must be exposed to the dangers of inclement weather. 

 In that State, when it has become evident that there is 

 going to be a fine yield and the wheat kernels are in the 

 dough stage or ripening, and when it is yet a little too early 

 to begin cutting, the sight of storm-clouds looming up upon 

 the horizon makes the farmers very apprehensive ; for the 

 heavier the stand and the greater the prospective yield, the 

 greater is the danger of severe lodging by rain and wind, 

 and of destruction by hail. Every day that the uncut 

 grain is exposed in the fields, the risk of damage is 

 lengthened ; and the harvesting of the crop a week sooner 

 owing to the early ripening habit of Marquis, often pre- 

 vents serious disaster. 



XIII. Earliness and Rust 



Another great advantage connected with earliness in 

 Marquis is the diminished risk of loss from Black Stem 

 Eust. The disease is caused by a parasitic fungus known 

 as Puccirda graminis which settles in the form of micro- 

 scopic spores upon the leaves and haulms of the wheat- 

 plant, penetrates through the epidermis when the weather 

 is moist and warm, appropriates for its own uses much of 

 the sugar manufactured by the leaves, and thus inter- 

 feres with the passage of this important substance to the 

 grains where normally it is destined to be converted into 



