A NOTE 
ON 
INDIAN WHEAT-RUSTS. 
By D, D. Cunningham and D, Prain, 
During the cold season of 1895-96, while one of us was engaged 
in conducting certain experimental cultures of wheat at the Ciovern- 
ment Farm, Sbibpuj:, an opportunity was afforded of partially investi- 
gating some of the ^phenomena connected with rust in wheat. The 
results obtained, as will presently appear, are neither final nor, so far 
even as they go, complete. But if they do not clear up the difficul- 
ties that surround this subject, they seem to narrow in some degree 
the field of enquiry ; in this respect therefore they may prove of some 
general interest and may perhaps to a certain extent be of use. 
The present note, which has been prepared in compliance with an 
order issued to Dr. Prain by the Government of India through the 
Government of Bengal, contains an account of our observations. 
Owing to the exigencies of routine work at the Experimental 
Farm and, in some instances, owing to delay in the arrival of samples 
the sowings were made rather late in the season. Of 82 patches, 
in which as many samples were tried, 27 were sown on October 
31st, 1895 ; 21 on November 3rd ; ii on November 13th, and the re- 
mainder on November 25th. In each case the wheat was sown in 
parallel drills in long narrow plots. 
In one of the plots of the third sowing it was noticed for the first 
time on January 14th, that some of the plants had become “rusted^'- 
about six plants in each of three rows in the centre of the patch 
were then apparently affected. Two days later the ‘*rust’^ was evi- 
dent in adjacent patches ; within a week it had appeared in every 
part of the wheat-field ; in less than ten days it was not possible to 
find a single plant entirely free from ‘‘rust.’’ 
The subject of “rust’^ on Indian wheat is for both of us one of 
interest because of the attention it received from our lamented 
friend, the late Dr. Arthur Barclay. So soon therefore as one 
of m had noticed the presence of “ rust ” in this wheat-field and 
the other had ascertained that its structural and metric characters 
seemed to be those indicative of the Indian “rust^' identified by Dr. 
Barclay with Puccinia ruhigo-vera (Journal of Botany, vol. 30, p. 46, 
1892), it became our object, if possible, to ascertain the source of 
the blight. 
