The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1901-06-18
News and Courier.

J
rust, and SO great wero tho ravagos
of this disease that wheat culture in
tho low country WAS almost aban-
doned. About this time oats also
began to rust, but thoy, too, wore
almost wholly abandoned.
Some twonty, years ago thoro ap.
peared upon tho market what was
called rust proof oats. Farmers took
hold of them with many misgivings
and it was several yoars before they
came into general Use, but now they
arc grown from Maryland to Mexico,
and from the Florida peninsula to
Kansas, and no ono has evor heard Of q
field Of rust proof oats rusting, and
: they save tho Southern farmers
many millions of dollars yearly.
Thoy aro grown Oh all kinds Of soil
and under varying condition, yet
thoy show no signs Of degenerating
or rusting. On tho othor hand they
arc gradually improving, and no one
is making any special effort to make
this Improvement.
Just how rust. proof oats were
originated l do not know, but worry
hkol y it WAS by some very simple
method.
| havo mado and harvested twenty
crops Of rust proof oats, and evory
year Of tho twenty l have soon more
or less wheat growing among my oats,
but | have never seen a trace Of rust
or smut on head or bunch of wheat
growing in field Of rust proof oats.
But when I have sown wheat alone
| have always seon an abundance of
both rust and smut in it. began to
ask, why should wheat sown in oats
be absolutely free from either rust or
smut, while that sown alone was
either badly damaged or entirely
ruined by these two fatal enemies of
whcatY
So marked was the difference te-
tween the wheat grown u,ono and
that grown in oats till three years
ago | procured some bearded wheat,
variety very subject to rust, and
sowed 1t among my oats rs an OK
pertinent. That sown in the oats
made a fine showing, not /. trace Of
rust or smut being on it, while that
sown to itself was almost q total fail
ure, owing to the doadly ravagos of
these two diseases. The experiments
were continued last year with the
same results. | did not continue
the experiments this year, because it
is simply torture to work in bearded
wheat, on account Of the heavy
boards sticking one 80 cruelty, and it
is not as productive as the beardless
varieties.
This fall I shall make my expert
ments on moro elaborate scale. I
shall uso the blue stem wheat, and
shall find out what proportion Of oats
must be grown in wheat to prevent
rust. l shall begin with nine meas
ures Of wheat to one of oats, and
follow this ratio to equal proper
tons, and shall SOW each of the above
mixtures on separate plots Of land Of
equal fertility, prepared alike, fer
tilted alike and sown the same day.
Alongslde Of the plots, under the
same con :tions, will be sown a plot
Of wheat in which no oats have been
mixed. The plots will be carefully
| watched and tho results made known.
Just how long it Will take wheat to
partako of the hardy nature of tho
rust proof oats, 30 that it can be
safely sown alone, remains 20 be seen,
but | am satisfied that in the course
Of three or four years it will become
equally as hardy as the oats, and be
always immune to both rust and smut.
Perhaps you are asking in y;ur
own mind how will You separate the
wheat and oats sown together? That
is very simple. The thresher will i'll
q great measure separate them
Should you wash your wheat you
will be able then to get out nearly
all the remaining oats, as oats are
lighter than wheat and do not sink
so readily. The few oats left IN the
wheat will all be taken out by the
smut mill. "a smutter," as it il
commonly called, will not only take
all oats ont of wheat, but\it will also