150 
RUST IN COTTON. 
larger than the second, the second larger than the 
third, and so on in a deteriorating progression. 
When, however, they arrive at maturity, receiving 
the benefit of air, and the light and heat of the 
sun, they yield a much richer juice, and produce a 
better quality of sugar. Their juice is much easi¬ 
er clarified, and less care is required in its concen¬ 
tration, than in the canes otherwise cultivated. 
Hence, by this method, the produce of sugar from 
the same quantity of ground, if not equal to that 
from canes raised the other way in soils more re¬ 
cently worked, perhaps yields, in a long run, quite 
as much profit to the planter, provided the com¬ 
parative expense of labor attending both modes be 
taken into account. 
The sugar-cane here is perhaps less liable to 
accidents than in any other part of the West In¬ 
dies. With the exception of fire, which sometimes 
consumes whole cane-fields as though they were 
composed of gunpowder, there are not many ca¬ 
lamities that befall it. There are but few insects 
which feed upon it to any extent, and this is of rare 
occurrence. Formerly much evil was experienced 
by the depredations from rats, but this has been 
obviated by introducing into the fields domestic cats 
which have run wild, and have propagated their 
species to an extent sufficient to destroy these depre¬ 
dators. 
In your next number I propose to resume this 
subject, and give an account of the modes of manu¬ 
facturing sugar as practised here. 
D. J. Browne. 
* For the American Agriculturist. 
RUST IN COTTON. 
Ingleside, Miss., June 26th , 1843. 
Apter giving a gloomy account of the prospects 
of the rice, cotton, and corn crops, on the bottoms 
of the Mississippi, and many of its branches, owing 
to the long-protracted, deluging rains, Mr. Affleck 
proceeds to say: 
*r In addition to the foulness of our crops, and the 
utter impossibility of cleaning them—and the fact 
that even on hill lands the cotton is growing much 
too rapidly, throwing out long, overgrown branch¬ 
es, with scarce a form (blossom-bud) to be seen— 
it is becoming, in many fields, seriously injured by 
rust. 
This rust is a disease for which the causes as¬ 
signed, and cures proposed, are various enough. 
It shows itself everywhere, more or less, in wet 
weather; but even then is worse on bottom lands. 
At other times, as far as my observation and in¬ 
formation go, it appears only on that land that 
has been cropped for a long succession of years, 
in cotton, without change, rest, or manure. In 
new land, it rarely does any harm, unless it be 
low and wet—a wet soil and a moist atmosphere 
being what the cotton plant loves not. 
What is called rust here—and I think is cor¬ 
rectly so called—has its origin in the stem and 
branches, though it first shows itself in the leaves. 
These become covered all over with splotches of 
brown or russet, and soon dry up, so as to almost 
crumble at the touch. The branches and stem 
then show the same appearance. But if, on the 
leaves first becoming spotted, the stem be broken, 
it will be found diseased at the heart or pith, from 
the ground up. The plant dwindles, shrinks, and 
dies, without perfecting a howl. 
The causes assigned to this disease, and the 
cures proposed, are—too much moisture, and 
draining recommended as a cure; iron in the soil, 
and the application of lime advised; some ascribe 
it to deep, and others to too shallow plowing; and 
some again to a superabundance of vegetable mat¬ 
ter in the soil, and others to a lack of it. For my 
part, I had almost come to the conclusion that it 
was occasioned by some minute insect, which was 
aided in its operations by dark rainy weather, 
forcing the plant -into a too vigorous, dropsical 
growth, during which the epidermis (outer bark) 
becomes thickened and softened, by which the in¬ 
sect is enabled to make more rapid progress in its 
injuries. Land that has been injured and ex¬ 
hausted by successive crops of any one plant, can 
not possibly sustain that plant in a healthy state, 
during the extreme vigor imparted to it by un¬ 
usual growing weather; this being the case, it 
yields much more quickly to injury of any kind. 
My opinion of an insect being the direct cause 
of the rust in cotton (and, by the way, under al¬ 
most every leaf affected by it, will be found num¬ 
bers of a minute species of aphis), has been much 
shaken, if not changed, by perusing an address by 
Dr. Leitner, published in the 8th volume of the 
Southern Agriculturist. There, Dr. L. states dis¬ 
tinctly, that this disease “ is occasioned by the 
uredo gossypii , a minute parasitic fungus, which I 
think arises originally from the deteriorated state 
of the soil, not furnishing the necessary and whole¬ 
some food for the plants. The functions of nutri¬ 
tion, secretion, and excretion, are of course dis¬ 
turbed, the vessels become gradually obstructed, 
and the tissue disorganized, which, when assisted 
by great moisture in the atmosphere, is often fol¬ 
lowed by a development of this fungus.” The 
writer then goes on to explain how the fungus 
shows itself, and causes the injury; and how it is 
produced and increased by careless and exhausting 
cultivation; that “agricultural observations seem 
to show, that only wornout lands produce this 
disease, whereas the new land remains generally 
free from it; that open land that has been covered 
with saplings, briars, and a luxuriant growth of 
broom-grass, and other weeds, is most calculated 
to induce this evil, and that it is most prevalent in 
wet seasons. If you admit these views of the dis¬ 
ease to bo correct, it becomes evident that its pre¬ 
vention can only be effected by the improvement 
of our soils, the burning down of the crop as soon 
as rust is observed, and a rotation of crops. The 
latter, I think, will be found the most effectual 
remedy, as it is an established fact, that most of 
the parasitic mushrooms, though met with indif¬ 
ferently upon almost all the species of their re¬ 
spective natural orders, can not extend their rav¬ 
ages beyond that order.” 
Let the cause which produces rust be what it 
will, I have not a doubt but that the true cure is 
here pointed out. I am the more confirmed in this 
belief, from some observations I made last year; 
such as, that one field which I put in cotton, last 
season, had been in corn, so far as I could learn. 
