544 
AMEEICAir ’AaEICULTURIST. [December, 
Wheat Rust and Mildew. 
Rusts and mildews enter grain fields like thieTes 
by nigbt, and rob the farmer of his bountiful har¬ 
vest. There is much mystery connected with the 
coming of these destroyers, and but little is gener¬ 
ally known of them, exceptingtheir ruinous effects. 
In figure 1 is seen a portion of a wheat leaf, three 
times enlarged, showing the rust in small oval 
spots scattered over the surface. Each one of 
these spous is a ruptured place in the epidermis or 
skin of the leaf. If a young spot, just forming, is 
cut with a sharp razor, and a thin slice placed un¬ 
der the compound microscope, we will have in 
view, when magnified two hundred times, what is 
seen in figure 2. This engraving shows one side 
or half of the spot. The circles at a show the or¬ 
dinary cells, making up the substance of the leaf, 
and from which the skin, b, has been torn away by 
the growth of a multitude of threads and oval bod¬ 
ies, between them. These fine filaments are the 
roots, so to speak, of a minute plant, and the bright 
oval bodies are the “seeds.” The rust plant be¬ 
longs to the order of vegetation known as fungi, 
the more conspicuous members of which are the 
mushroom and toad-stools. As the wheat rust 
continues to grow, the skin over the upraised spots 
is burst off, and the multitudes of oval bodies, 
called spores, are exposed to view. They are of a 
bright, reddish orange color, and produce the 
characteristic appearance of the surface of rusty 
wheat plants. The color is not unlike that of iron 
rust, and the name, therefore, is weU chosen. The 
Eig. 1.— SUEFACB OF WHEAT LEAF, ENLABGED. 
bright spores are easily detached from the minute 
stalks that bear them. This fact is well-known by 
the farmer, whose clothing is quickly coated with 
“rust,” by simply brushing against the infested 
grain. These spores germinate in a few hours, 
when provided with suitable conditions of warmth 
and moisture. Figure 3 shows two of these spores, 
a, a, that have fallen upon the surface of a young 
wheat leaf, the whole being magnified four hun¬ 
dred times. The spores germinate at two points 
on opposite sides, and the filaments grow irregularly 
over the surface, 6, until a breathing pore, c, is 
found in the skin of the leaf, when they pass into 
the interior of the leaf. After an entrance is ef¬ 
fected the filaments branch, and rapidly increase 
in length and number, at the expense of the elab¬ 
orated juices of the wheat plant, and in a few days 
new rust spots are produced. In this manner sev¬ 
eral generations of the rust plant succeed each 
other. This pest is most destructive where it ap¬ 
pears in abundance shortly after the wheat has 
blossomed. If a number of warm rains follow in 
quick succession, the growth of the rastis favored, 
and the grain fails to fiU. The substance of the 
wheat plant has been stolen, and employed in the 
formation of countless yellow spores of the fungus. 
Later in the season a second form of spore is 
formed in the rust spots. Figure 4 is a magnified 
view of a rust-spot section, corresponding with 
figure 2. The spores are seen to be of a different 
shape, being double and very dark. These are 
called the winter spores, and do not quickly ger¬ 
minate like the rust (or uredo) spores. These dark 
spores, when crowded in the ruptured pustules, 
produce the “ weather stains ” so frequently seen 
upon wheat straw, and especially the stubble. In 
this state, sometimes called “brown mildew,” the 
fungus {Paccinia graminis), causing so much des¬ 
truction to the wheat crop, passes the winter in 
comparative inactivity. In early spring, the dark, 
microscopic spores germinate, and should the 
weather be favorable, the story of destruction is 
repeated. In one of its forms, this fungus may in¬ 
fest the barberry, producing countless orange 
spots, called “cluster cups.” Recent investiga¬ 
tions show that this form may be omitted when the 
barberry is not within reach. With such a pest as 
Fig. 2.— SECTION OF KCST PUSTttLE. 
the rust plant, which does most of its destruc¬ 
tive work before it becomes manifest, remedial 
measures of any kind are not easily applied. 
Seth Green—His Ways and Works. 
The readers of the American Agriculturist need 
not be told who Seth Green is. His fame as a 
master of the rod and gun, and as an enthusiastic, 
practical pisciculturist, is world-wide. He is a 
keen observer of nature in all her moods ■, but is 
especially noted for his intimate acquaintance with 
fishes and birds, and their habits, and the profound 
knowledge he possesses of the vegetable and ani¬ 
mal life upon which they feed. Mr. Green is gifted 
with remarkable conversational powers, is clear 
and luminous in statement, and no one can listen 
to him without rare entertainment and instruetion. 
He is untiring in his researches after knowledge, 
and has a marvellous aptitude for combining and 
controlling the minor and insignificant forces of 
nature, so that they will work together for the 
advantage of man. The writer was seated with 
him in his garden in Rochester, N. T., one after¬ 
noon last summer, the immediate topic of discus¬ 
sion being the appearance of alewives in Lake On¬ 
tario, where they had been mistaken for menhaden, 
and had even been supposed to be a variation in 
the shad that had been liberated by him in the 
streams running into that lake. Mr. Green ex¬ 
plained that the alewives, a salt water family allied 
to the shad, had reached Lake Ontario by the ca¬ 
nals. Thirty years ago. he found them in one of 
the small lakes in this State, and later in Cayuga, 
Seneca, and Keuka lakes. He first found them in 
Lake Ontario in 1872. From this subject, episodes 
were made to the ciscos of Lake Geneva, Wiscon¬ 
sin, which appear in countless numbers in June, 
with the “sand flies;” to the rise and progress of 
eels, which he, with other naturalists, regards as a 
salt water product, a great traveller, and an emi¬ 
grant from the ocean to the waters of the interior; 
to the curious swarms of “ shad ” flies, or “ May ” 
flies on the St. Lawrence at Ogdensburg, and in 
the streams of Great Britain ; and to the “ sand ” 
flies whose sudden incursion into Chicago on the 
last Fourth of July, was described in the American 
Agriculturist for October. After these matters had 
been duly discussed, Mr. Green strolled through 
his garden and pointed out some examples of his 
special adaptations. Among his potato plants he 
had erected small platforms, on which, as he said, 
he had “ taught the sparrows to eat potato bugs.” 
First, he scattered crumbs on the platforms, on 
which the sparrows fed. Thence he invited them 
to the potato plants by scattering the crumbs on 
them. Then the sparrows found the potato bugs, 
and ate them, although we presume sparingly; 
since those pests are not acceptable as food. The 
sparrows are regarded as pests by many fanners 
and gardeners, and doubtless this was a case of 
“dog eating dog.” Among his melon vines, Mr. 
Green had laid boards. Lifting up those boards, 
multitudes of toads vvere found concealed there 
by day. At night they come out and feed upon 
the insects that infest the melon vines. It was a 
simple device, and one that succeeded admirably. 
The toads were harnessed to his scheme of gar¬ 
dening, and worked faithfully and well. There is a 
hint in this to other growers of melons. Standing 
upright by an apple tree, was a tomato vine. A 
little weight was fastened to the tomato stalk, 
near the top, and the string attached was thrown 
over a low limb of the tree. As the plant grew, 
the weight dropped towards the ground, and when 
it grew higher, the weight was carried over a higher 
limb. So the work went on and the tomato vine 
stood up erect and bore its blossoms aloft. The 
fruit followed in good time. Mr. Green found 
thrifty potato plants growing out of a refuse heap 
of coal ashes in the back part of the garden, 
dumped there by the former occupant of the 
Fig. 4.— WINTER SPOEES FOEMING. 
house. This at once suggested coal ashes as a top 
dressing in his potato patch. He accepted the sug¬ 
gestion made by nature, and his plants showed no 
ill effects from a dressing which is not regarded as 
a means of fertilization, and which indeed is 
generally held to be worthless. How that experi¬ 
ment turned out we cannot say. It is probable 
that.wood ashes and other vivifying agencies were 
mingled to a greater or less extent with the coal 
ashes. Mr. Green is a born experimenter, and is 
not slow to get at the bottom facts in the matters 
that attract his attention. He is not disposed to 
adopt the speculations or conclusions of others, 
except so far as they are based upon proved condi¬ 
tions. He has reduced to practical use, and given 
to the world, the results of long years of study and 
observation, and the world is better thereby. He 
is in the full vigor of industrious life, and will yet 
accomplish much more in the field of his special 
pursuits. The man who has worked so successfully 
for those who love the rod and gun, maybe able to 
instruct those who sometimes despair of the shovel 
and the hoe. 
Ashes and Manure.— L. H. Casselman, Carroll 
County, Ohio, asks : “As it is said to injure ma¬ 
nure to mix wood ashes with it, would the effect 
of coal ashes be the same ? How would tl:.ey 
answer in place of dry earth, to spread under the 
roosts in a poultry house ? How would saw-dust 
answer ?”—Coal ashes contains only the wood 
ashes resulting from the wood or charcoal used 
for kindling, and the proportion is not ordinarily 
large enough to cause appreeiable loss of the ma¬ 
nure. The convenience of th^ coal a.shes and the 
desirability of getting rid of them in some useful 
manner, make it desirable to dispose of them in 
the poultry house. Under the roosts ashes of 
any kind would be a better absorbent than saw¬ 
dust, and almost as good as ordinary dry earth. 
