The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-04

Now | have spent six minutes telling
you about This rust Of wheat and have
lett only one minute in which to tell you
the most important part, namely, how TO
prevent rusts.
wheat Wlth the rust can be sprayed
with bordeaux Mixture and the rust
killed but this is not practicable. There
is at present but one practicable and eff
ficient preventative that can recon-
mend. That is, plant breeding by selec-
ton.
If you select a sound wheat plant,
which has no rust on it from a rusted
field of wheat, the offspring of this plant
Will undoubtedly, have tendency to
resist rust. Then the seed from this
plant are planted and plants selected
from these which have no rust, you will
after several years obtain rust re-
sistant variety. This variety may have
some rust but if the selection of these
plants which have no rust is continued
the farmers need not fear any serious
damage from rusts
The next paper presented was by
Cadet S. W. Foster, of Rockingham,
whose topic was:
SHUTS OF CEREALS.
Before going into detail about smuts
let me tell you something of the damage
caused by this disease While listening
to these figures / ask you to bear in
mind that many farmers look upon this
as disease of little consequence.
The total loss caused by smuts in the
United States is over $1S,O00,000 annual
ly. In the State of Ohio it is about $780,
600 annually and in our own State in the
year 1899 the damage to the wheat and
oat crop alone was nearly 100000. The
damage will average over 100000 annu-
ally.
Now suppose this money, which is
actually lost, was saved and devoted to
agricultural education, What would be
the condition of our State? Why, we
would have the best agricultural State
in the Union and the best educated men
to keep it so.
These smuts grow on all of the cereals,
doing mere or less damage to all of them.
The two principal crops affected are
wheat and oats. Corn is also affected
with a smut which does considerable dam
age, but there is no way known of pre-
venting on this plant, while there is on
wheat and oats. The average per cent
of damage caused by smut in North
Carolina is about ten TO twelve in wheat
and fifteen in oats.
Smut practically destroys the crop for
it affects the kernels causing them to
be a mass OF smutty looking substance
| instead of sound kernels. 1t also affects
the stalks, causing them TO be dwarfed
and lacking in vigor Many farmers
who know some manifestations of smut
often overlook the fact that this dwarf
ing and impaired vigor is caused by
smut. Hence they underestimate the
damage done by this disease. They go
through the field looking for smut end
notice only the stalks that have the
smutty kernals. They never take any ac-
count of the littde dwarfed stalks only
one-fourth or half so high as the
others Each of these smutted plants,
however, takes noufshment from the
soil, occupies space in the field, and
costs just as much to grow as healthy
ones. Besides being worthless, such
stalks do a great deal of damage by pro-
lucing more spores With which to spread
it's infection.
The vital question now is how to pre-
vent this damage. Before we can intel
iigently attempt prevention we must
know somethin gof the nature of smut
You may then ask the question, what
s smut" To this I would answer
Smut is a very small parasitic plant;
that is, a plant which feeds on some
other plant as a host and grows upon or
inside of it, it comes from spore
which NAV no pprnparad n tho capd Of the
higher plants. This spore sprouts, the
sprout grows and produces a plant the
'ame way as any other plant. Thine
black masses so noticeable when the
grain is ripening are not the smut plants,
out countless numbers of minute ripen-
I'd spores, which are the fruit of the
parasitic plant, which has been growing
within the wheat all summer. These
5pores are often blown fro mthe oat or
wheat head as soon as they are ripened
out sometimes they remain in black, dis
agreeable masses. These spores are
very small in size; so small that you
cannot see one spore by itself. They
lXerage about 1866 of an inchh in di
amter. When these spores are blown
about by the wind in the field they light
IN healthy grains and stick to them. In
his way they are planted with the grain.
While the oat and wheat spores are ger
nnating and growing the smut spores
lre doing the same thing only in little
different way. Each terminating spore
ends out minute tube which penetrates
he little plant before it reaches the
urface. But there is no evil
lence of its being present until the
heads are forming At this time the
oung kernels are filled with these
branching threads which rob them of
heir nourishment and ripen countless
umbers of new spores with which to re-
reduce the next year Thus what
should have been head of grain turns
20 be what is much worse than nothing,
! mass of dusty spores.
Now since this parasite robs its host
If so much nourishhment the latter is
naturally weekend and only part of the
mutted plants attain the average height
If the healthy ones. Thus it is that the
usual observer sees only the high smut
md concludes that the crop is only
slightly smutted when really it may be
damaged fifteen to twenty or even forty
Der cent.
Now we come TO the most important