SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
Smuts destroyed over 108,000,000 bushels of corn (maize), or about 
twelve times the total maize production of Australia, and at 48. a bushel 
equals £21,000,000. One serious maize smut that occurs in the United 
States of America is still excluded from our maize-producing areas. 
The following general averages of annual losses were obtained in 
the American estimates:—Loss on all crops inquired into for the year 
1917, 12.5 per cent., consisting of sweet potatoes, 32 per cent.; ordinary 
potatoes, 21 per cent.; cotton, 15 per cent.; beans, 12 per cent.; sugar 
beet, 12 per cent.; wheat, 9 per cent.; oats, 9 per cent.; barley, 6 per 
cent.; corn, 5 per cent.; rye, 4 per cent.’ 
When climatic conditions are favorable for the development of fungi, 
epidemics often occur, and the losses are enormously increased. A few 
examples of these are— 
Potato blight in Ireland (hence the name) in 1845 destroyed prac- 
tically the whole crop, causing great famine. In New York State, in 
1904, it caused £2,000,000 loss; in New Zealand, 1905, £200,000; and 
in New South Wales, 1909-10, the greater part of the crop. Peach leaf 
curl, in the United States of America, 1900, caused £500,000 loss. This 
disease is now entirely preventable, though it occurs largely throughout 
Australia, and its effects on‘the tree are cumulative. 
‘Brown rot of the peach, in Georgia, in 1900, took half the crop (loss 
£100,000) ; similarly in Missouri, in 1910, the whole of the crop in all 
unsprayed orchards was lost. In New South Wales, in 1914, over 50 
per cent. of the stone fruit crop suffered. The rust epidemic, in New 
South Wales, in 1916, took over one-third of the wheat crop. = 
Recently, by the importation of Australian wheat to the United 
States of America, two of our diseases, Flag Smut and Take All, which 
did not exist in America, were introduced, though the American authori- 
ties had been warned of the possibility. Over 6,250,000 bushels were 
imported through Californian ports, ground to flour, and sent to Europe, 
while the bran and by-products were retained in the country to feed 
stock. It has been stated that these two diseases in Australia destroy 
from 10 per cent. to 20 per cent. of the wheat crops in bad years. In 
Illinois and Indiana, where the American outbreaks occurred, serious 
damage resulted. In some cases 95 per cent. of the crop was destroyed. 
Whole fields have been ploughed up to stop the spread of the diseases. 
On 15th August, 1919, a quarantine regulation was issued, prohibiting 
the importation into the United States of America of wheat from Aus- 
tralia, India, and Japan, and of rice, wheat, oats, and barley from Italy, 
France, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Brazil, and Australia, 
as Flag Smut occurs in the former on wheat only, and Take All occurs 
in the latter countries, and may affect the cereals mentioned. 
Very energetic steps are being taken in addition to stamp out these 
two diseases. The Federal Horticultural Board, in co-operation with 
the two States, will burn all straw and stubble, will disinfect all grain, 
and prohibit the further growing of wheat in such districts. 
Australia could adopt, with great advantage, many of the vigorous 
American methods of dealing with new infectious epidemics; quarantine 
restrictions (e.g., treating all postal packages in steel cylinders, in which 
a vacuum can be first produced, and then the fumigating gas admitted). 
and phytopathological work generally. 
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