162 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1899. 
Mr. W. Deacon, of Allora, then read the following paper :— 
RUST IN WHEAT—A PROBABLE PREVENTIVE. 
In the compilation of this paper, I beg to acknowledge my obligations to a 
amphlet on “ fi » Making and Improvements of Wheats for Australian Conditions,” 
5 Mr. Farrer, of New South Wales, and published by the Agricultural Department 
of that colony, and also to a lecture by Pro essor Eriksson, of Sweden, delivered at the 
Agricultural Congress held at Stockholm in 1897, and appended by Mr. Farrer as a 
supplement to his pamphlet. Wheat rust to_the ordinary farmer and the interested 
observer is a plague or disease that suddenly, in some seasons in a few days, converts 
an apparently healthy and peganng crop, that has had all the care and culture that 
could be bestowed upon it, nto a hideous and useless mass of rotting vegetation. The 
crop has shown a fine breadth all winter, has grown vigorously in the spring, has eared 
magnificently, and the farmer haying ordered his reaper and binder has almost 
realised a magnificent yield, and seen in the immediate future a respite from care and 
anxiety, his debts paid, and a substantial reward for his industry, when his hopes have 
been dashed to the ground by the disease having seized and, in a few days, strangled 
his crop; and his anticipated yield of 30 bushels per acre or more reduced to a bushel 
or two or perhaps nothing. Having been a wheatgrower for many years, and liyed 
in a colonial wheat district for more than 30, I have observed the rust in all its 
stages. I have seen grand crops changing colour, destroyed in a few days. I have 
also seen a crop apparently battling with its antagonist, hold its own bravely, and 
emerge from the struggle carrying a fair yield of grain, but still with that yield 
impaired. I have seen rust completely destroy patches in a field and leave the rest 
untouched ; on the other hand, T have seen a field destroyed all except a few patches 
generally inclusive of the headlands. Rust is not confined to Australia or to tropical 
or sub-tropical climates. In parts of America it is very prevalent. Mr. Farrer says 
that in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana the crops are so damaged by P. graminis— 
summer rust—as not to be worth harvesting, and in Kansas it appears that there are 
no wheats which are not liable to be attacked by this rust. In Sweden, both spring 
and summer rusts are very prevalent, and it has been said that there are no wheats 
which will resist them-- in certain seasons. In regard to the above statements Mr. 
Farrer remarks it seems to him that our climate is so fayourable to wheat, that 
varieties can be found that will resist both rusts. Nor is rust a new disease, or by 
any means a new thing. I have often thought Shakespeare refers to it when he says 
of a very wet time— 
The ox has therefore stretched his yoke in vain, 
The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green corn 
Hath withered ere his youth attained a beard. 
The Romans were familiar with the pest, and singularly concluded that its 
ravages were more severe in seasons when the nights were cold and the days very hot, 
whilst we, on the contrary, are more fearful of muggy days and what are termed close 
nights. Rust is a parasite of fungus, which in certain stages in the growth of cereals 
appears in various forms on different parts of the plant, and by intercepting the sap 
diminishes or destroys the plant's productiveness. Professor Kriksson resolves rust 
into five main divisions, and these again he subdivides into ten subdivisions. Of 
these subdivisions, the summer rust is responsible for three, one of which attacks 
barley and rye, another wheat, and the other oats. Now, I have never seen rust in 
malting barley and rye in the colony, though I have seen summer crops of rye, or crops 
sown about Christmas time, but oats are more or less liable to be victims to the pest. 
But as summer rust, and all rust is admitted to be infectious, the fact that, at times, 
oats grown in a crop of wheat are clean, while the wheat has been destroyed; and vice 
versd, that wheat BROWNS amongst oats has been free whilst the oats were rusty, proves 
the professor’s point. ne rusts, however, with which I am concerned in this paper 
are the spring or spot rust, and the summer or streaky rust, which are the rusts that 
affect wheat. These rusts are called by different names, and are said to be distinct 
species, but my experience leads me to the conclusion that severe attacks of streaky 
rust are generally preceded by the spot rust. Mr. Farrer says “that experience and 
observation have fed him to the conclusion that spot rust in this country does no 
material harm,” and this is confirmed as regards America, by Mr. Carleton, in charge 
of the “Rust in Wheat’ experiments carried on by the Government of the United 
States. The spot rust or yellow rust, or orange rust as it is called, is seen on the 
leaves and sometimes on the leaf sheaths but not on the stalk. It may appear at any 
time, for I have seen it on wheat 4 or 5 weeks old, before the severity of the winter, 
but it generally sets in when the wheat is more advanced, well in the shot blade and 
