JOURNAL OF AGRICDLTDRAL RESEARCH 
Vol. XXIII Washington, D. C., March io, 1923 No. 10 
INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ROSETTE DISEASE OF 
WHEAT AND ITS CONTROL 1 
By Harold H. McKinney 3 
Assistant Pathologist , Office of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, United 
States Department of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
It is the purpose of this paper to present the results obtained during 
the past three years in the investigations on the rosette disease of winter 
wheat. This disease was reported from Madison County, Ill., in the 
spring of 1919 by Lyman 3 and later it was found in other counties in 
Illinois and in several counties in Indiana. Shortly after its discovery it 
was described by Humphrey and Johnson (9) . 4 At that time the disease 
was considered apparently identical with the take-all disease occurring 
in Australasia and the footrot disease occurring in Europe. However, 
investigations herein reported show that the rosette disease of wheat 
differs from take-all in plant symptoms and also in the varietal and host 
ranges. Furthermore, none of the fungi which are commonly found 
associated with take-all abroad and in parts of this country have been 
found associated with the rosette disease. It is therefore clearly evident 
that the latter disease occurring in Illinois and Indiana is distinctly 
different from the take-all disease. 
The take-all, footrot, and similar diseases which occur abroad also 
occur in several States in this country. 5 While the causal agent may or 
may not be the same in all cases, the plant symptoms manifested in 
1 Accepted for publication Oct. 28,1921. In this paper the designation rosette disease will be applied 
to the wheat disease occurring in Illinois and Indiana, previously referred to as take-all and so-called take- 
all. The name take-all will be used in referring to the disease caused by Ophiobolus graminis Sacc. The 
diseases producing symptoms more or less closely similar to take-all will be grouped under the name footrot. 
The investigations upon which this paper is based were carried on in cooperation with the Wisconsin, 
Illinois, and Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Stations, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the 
Board of Education, Granite City, Ill. 
* Especial credit is due Prof. G. H. Dungan, of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, for bringing 
together certain fertilizers and seed samples used and for assisting in sowing some of the plots and in other 
ways, and Dr. C. E. Leighty, Agronomist, Office of Cereal Investigations, United States Department of 
Agriculture, for identifying wheat varieties and for furnishing all seed marked “C. I.” in the tables. The 
writer is indebted to Prof. L. R. Jones and Dr. A. G. Johnson for helpful suggestions throughout the work 
herein reported. 
* Lyman, G. R. “take-all ” ov wheat in this country. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Plant Indus. Plant 
Dis. Survey Circ. 1 p. May 1, 1919. Mimeographed. 
4 Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited," pp. 799-800. 
5 A wheat disease of the take-all type was first reported in America from Oregon in 1902 by Cordley (5). 
None of the organisims which are associated with this type of trouble abroad were reported by him, however, 
and this type of disease was not reported again from Oregon until 1921 (36). 
In 1919 the same type of wheat malady was reported from Roanoke County, Va. (zq). Diseased plants 
sent to the Office of Cereal Investigations, United States Department of Agriculture, by Dr. F. D. Fromme 
on June 16,1919, showed typical symptoms of take-all and footrot as they are described in the foreign litera¬ 
ture. Examinations made by the office staff revealed the presence of mature perithecia of Ophiobolus 
graminis Sacc., the organism which is now known to cause take-all. Later this disease and organism were 
found in Washington (6), New York ( 14 ), Arkansas (36), Oregon (36), and Knox County, Ind. ( 36 ). 
This type of malady associated with Leptosphaeria herpotrichoides de Not has been found in Washington 
by the writer and with Wojnowicia graminis (McAlpine) Sacc. and D. Sacc. ( 21 ) in Kansas, Arkansas, and 
Oregon. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
acp 
(77 1 ) 
Vol. XXIII, No. 10 
Mar. 10, 1923 
Key No. G-285 
27135—23 - 1 
