78 o 
Journal of Agricultural Research voi. xxiii, No. xo 
first, because of the wide soil variations under which the disease occurred, 
and second, because characteristic symptoms of the diseased wheat 
plants are unlike the symptoms manifested by wheat plants suffering 
from a lack of fertility or from poor drainage. Plants suffering from the 
latter conditions usually make a poor start in the fall, and tillering 
is greatly reduced compared with that of plants growing in properly 
diained, fertile soil. Both of these symptoms differ from those found 
with the rosette disease. 
While these observations practically eliminate soil type and drainage 
factors from the possible direct causes of the disease under discussion, 
they serve only as indirect evidence concerning the matter of soil fertility. 
Prom the standpoint of nutrition and of soil toxins which may result 
from decomposition of organic or inorganic matter, or from plant root 
excretions, it was considered that if these factors were by any chance 
the primary cause of the rosette disease, the fact could be demonstrated 
by conducting simple fertilizer, cropping, and tillage experiments on 
infested land. 
In light of the modem conception held by many workers in soil 
technology and allied branches, as Truog and Sykora (55), Lyon, Fippin, 
and Buckman (18 p. 136-138), Schreiner and Skinner (30), and 
Livingston ( 16 ), it was believed that some one of such a series of experi¬ 
ments would correct any soil disorders which might cause the disease 
and thus in turn materially control the disease. 
In the fall of 1919, eight plots (30 by 44 feet) of uniformly infested 
land were used for the soil-treatment experiments. 12 Applications of 
fertilizers, lime, and manure were made on five of the plots, and the 
remaining three plots were left untreated for controls. All treatments 
were applied in the fall, either just before or just after seeding. Harvest 
Queen (Salzer’s Prize-taker) wheat seed from a field free from the rosette 
disease was drilled across all of the treatments. Table IV gives the 
treatments, the rates of application of the materials, and the extent of 
disease which developed in the plots. 
Table IV .—Data showing little influence of fertilizers, manure, and lime upon the 
control of rosette disease in Harvest Queen ( Salzer’s Prize-taker) wheat sown on uniformly 
infested land at Granite City, III. 
Series. 
Plot 
No. 
Treatment. 
Rate per acre. 
Percentage 
of plants 
diseased. 
I 
None. 
00 
2 
Acid phosphate. 
222 pounds.... 
92 
fRock phosphate. 
1 ton. 
1 
3 
(Stable manure. 
6 tons. 
} 97 
[Finely-ground lime stone.. 
2 tons. 
) 
1 
1919-20 
4 
Rock phosphate. 
1 ton. 
\ 93 
Stable manure. 
6 tons. 
None. 
t 
04 
6 
Finely-ground lime stone. 
2 tons. 
06 
7 
Stable manure. 
6 tons. 
8 
None. 
y 0 
None. 
yo 
I 2 
Potassium sulphate. 
500 pounds.... 
85 
1920-21 ■ 
3 
Sodium nitrate. 
440 pounds.... 
87 
4 
Acid phosphate. 
250 pounds, :.. 
84 
i 5 
Finely-ground lime stone. 
2.5 tons. 
88 
18 All the field plot experiments referred to in this paper, unless otherwise stated .have been conducted 
on uniformly infested soil near Granite City, Ill. 
