The Portland daily press., 1868-09-26

1t is always interesting to the inquirng
mind to know the cause and character of dis
eases, even if cure for them cannot be dis
covered so easily as we might desire. And
this knowledge enables us more readily to find
a remedy for diseases both in animal and veg
etable life. The farmer has always been more
or less troubled with rust, not only upon
wheat, but also upon potatoes and other
plants. Rust is often more injurious to sew
eral kinds of crops tLan frost, unless the latter
Is very severe. Leaves are the lungs of plants,
and draw nourishment from the air, and rust
sometimes in single night will destroy them
SO that the plant ceases to breathe, and dies as
surely as tbs animal whose lungs are con-
gested.
There has been much discussion upon the
subject of rust, and opinions of scientific men
and farmers have differed in relation to its
cause. The Mark Lane Express has an arti-
Gle upon the nature and causes of the red rust
some OF the suggestions of which may be in
teresting to agriculturists of our State. 1t
seems the subject is considered Of so much
importance that the Governor Of South Aus
tralia appointed q commission which has COL
lected a vast fund OF information from the col
lated reports of eight hundred agriculturists.
Although the statements of these cultivators
are in some respects contradictory yet the
committee were enabled to obtain some gen.
eral results which, while they showed the fall
| lacy of the opinions advanced, established the
fact that no condition of soil or climate is free
| from its ravages. "The rust-spores," says Dr.
| Muecke, "are located and spread over the
whole world; neither oceans nor mountains
will stop them. They do not commence to
grow and multiply until they meet the circum-
stances favorable to their existence and nour-
| ishment." The follow statements were among
those given in relation to the causes of rust:
| The red rust is caused
| l. By the exhaustion Of the SOIL
.. BY late sowing.
| .. BY manuring.
| 4. White straw is the bcst
| Red rust also prevails
| l. ON newly cultivated lands.
| g BY early swing.
| 8, Manure prevenled.
| 4. Purple straw IS the best.
| Such are the contrary opinions which were,
no doubt, adopted from observation and expe-
rience. But it seems to us they only furnish
evidence of other influences than those ad-
vanced which have operated and will CONSTANT
ly operate, to neutralize general theories on
| this subject.
~ The writer in the Mark Lane Express saws
there is not doubt that climatic condition,
have the greatest share in the production O.
the red rust. A moist, warm season causes q
forid development of vegetation and opens
the breathing pores of the plant, and so gives
passage to the spores of the parasites which are
continually held suspended in the air, Ihese
spores, entering the openings thus left throw
out their rootlets (mycelid) and, by intercept
ing the sap between the stem ana the ear, I'M
poyerish the grain and destroy the crop. 1t is
the oninion of DIR. Muecke that the red rust
never attacks the wheat plant unless it is 9th.
erwise diseased-n fact, that is an effect, and
not cause, or, at least, second rather than
first cause, being itself superinduced by the
corrupted state of the juices of the plant He
says: "Where the rust destroys we may safely
infer that plants were in a suffering state be