Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1858-08-19
Rust in Oats-What is it?


Under this head the Southern Homestead
OF last week makes the following remarks.
The subject is one of great interest 10 far
mers, and the irestigations should be pros
ecuted until the cause of their new enemy
is ascertained If possible:
Throughout the whole South. western
portion of the Union the oat crop has suf-
fered from a terrible blight, which from its
resemblance 10 the fungous substance that
sometimes attacks wheat by that name, has
been called rust So far as we are informed,
rust in oats has hitherto been unknown
We have never heard of anything of the
kind, in any section Of the country. The
fact that it is thus unusual, opens . wide
and interesting field 10 the entomolagist, as
il invites inve,tigation in q chahnel, SO far
a. we can ascertain heretofore UNEMPLOYED.
While in West Tennessee, short time
since, we took occasion TO examine the blade
Of the oat under microscope, (kindly fur
nished us by the Baily tronpe,) and were
greatly surprised with the phenomena which
the glass revealed. Since then, we have
followed up these examinations, by the aid
of more powerful instruments, at the Med
icsl College in this city, in company with
several scientific gentlemen, among whor,
were Dr,. Briggs and Buchanan Of the
Medical Faculty.
The cause Of all this destruction Of the
oat crop is living worm, too small to be
plainly seen with the naked eye. A single
blade or leaf of the oat sometimes contains
hundreds Of them. They lie encased In
the tlssures of the leaf or blade where they
have been germinated, beneath the epider-
mis- or thin pellicls over the exterior por'
ton Of the blade, and as they progress in
development, the skin of The leaf is raised
into curious puffy blisters. The growth ol
the worm subsequently, ruptures these, and
it escapes to feed on the plant. When first
release IRON their covering, they are of g
beautiful, clear, red color, almost transpar-
ent, but soon begin 10 change color and
form, getting more Opaque and dark in ap.
pearance urtil, in the course Of transforma-
tion, they become black bug. with legs
and wings, when they attack the head OF
grain of the oats.
Under the microscope, the dust which
remain, on the leaf, closely resembles that
on the wing of butterflies.
How this innumerable army Of infnites-
sinai worms originated is yet mystery.-
1t i, singular fact, however, that wher-
ever the greatest quantity Of ram has fal-
len, there tha oat crop Jared the worst. In
our recent trip through West Tennessee,
we saw but single field Of oats, between
the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers,
which was not total failure, or into which
it would not be folly to pu. scythe-blads.
Thai field was near Denmark, in Madison
county, and was sown very early. Ii is
well-known that more rain has fallen in
West Tennessee this season, than in any
other part of the State; hence the extreme
wet weather must have had some agency
in the production Of this ahimalcule. II is
also well known that moisture and heat will
produce and multiply animal life. millions
per hour, and therein We judge is the Sc
cret OF this destruction Of the cat crop. II
is one of those eases of natural phenouena
which occur only at certain stage in the
growth of plants, and under peculiar states
of ftenperaturs and weather. 1t may hap
pen next season, OF il may not occur again
for many years.