THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. IX. No. 2. SEPTEMBER, 1902. 



FINGER-AND-TOE IN TURNIPS. 



PlasmodiopJwra brassicac. 



This disease — known also as Anbury, Club Root, and " Grub " 

 — attacks most, if not all, crops belonging to the order Craciferae, 

 such as turnips, swedes, cabbages, kohl rabi, rape, radishes, &c, 

 and often proves very destructive. It is not too much to say 

 that in some parts of the country it is the greatest trouble with 

 which the arable farmer has to contend, and annually occasions 

 much loss and expense. 



Although the name that this disease popularly bears in some 

 parts of the country, " Grub," would lead one to believe that the 

 cause of trouble is an insect, this is not the case, the source of 

 the mischief being really a fungus so small as to be perceptible 

 only by the aid of a strong microscope. This minute organism 

 is capable of existing for some years in a quiescent condition in 

 the soil, but when a crop that it can attack is sown upon the 

 ground, it enters the fine roots, multiplies rapidly in the tissues,, 

 and induces malformation and decay. 



Like many other fungoid diseases, this is extremely infectious, 

 as may be readily proved by taking some portions of diseased 

 root or soil from a diseased field and spreading such material 

 on ground on which cruciferous plants are to be grown. In the 

 great majority of cases, this treatment will be followed by an 

 attack of the disease, which, however, in the first year, will be 

 sharply confined to the area thus artificially infected. This 

 shows that finger-and-toe does not spread from plant to plant 

 through the air, as is the case with many other diseases, such, 



