YVRXYtfAIW CO^^'S.
(Front tilt Report of the Department of Agricul
ture of (icorgia.]
MICROSCOPIC FUNGI—UREDO OR WHEAT
RUST.
lto\V itdroWs a ndsomk remedies suggested.
The conviction is rapidly gaining ground,
that almost nil diseases in the animal and
vegetable kingdom are struggles, more or less
fierce, between higher and lower life. How
Over this may be with animals, it is certainly
true that most of the disasters which happen
to our cereal Crops originate in fungous
Spores or insect germs. The most dreaded
enemy of Wheat and oats in the South is prob
ttbly the tlredo, or Red Rust. Indeed, it has
caused many of our farmers to abandon the
Culture of these best of all cereals.
The microscopic fungi embrace several or
ders with many genera. The Red Rust be
longs to the order ccntiomycetes , which em
braces several genera, such as smut, rust,
blast, etc., (Rucaninea, Uredo. Ustilagia, etc.)
Potato rot (Botrytis) is slightly different in
order. In one short paper it would be im
possible to notice all of these. We will con
fine our discussion, therefore, to rusts, and
mainly to the species which attacks wheat
and oats ; premising that the propagation and
growth of all are very similar, and, generally,
what will prevent the one will alleviate the
attacks of the others. In this paper, as far
as practicable, only such terms will be used
as may be readily understood. By a fungous,
or parasitic plant, we mean such as grow on
other plants and draw life, not from the soil,
but directly from other life, as mistletoe and
mushrooms. Rust is simply a mushroom,
growing in different species, on wheat, oats,
briers, cotton, apple, pine and other trees.
One special kind, podisoma, forms the cedar
apple. The seed spores are carried through
the air by millions on millions, and falling on
the leaves of trees, or the blades and stalks
of grain and finding any place at which to
cling or pore through which to send down a
rootlet, under favorable conditions the}’ ger
minate in a few hours, grow up like a mush
room in a night, and multiply faster than all
the fish of the sea. The}’ do not grow from
seed proper, but from very minute cells, call
ed spores, which are lighter than the dust in
the air. It is now thought that even the least
conceivable portion of plastic matter from
otic of these cells is sufficient, under certain
conditions, to start the growth, as they seem
to grow by either ‘ fission” or “conjunc
tion.”
Figure 1, below, shows one of these 9porcs
which has just fastened itself in a wrinkle on
a wheat stalk. It generally clings first to the
’upper surface of a blade, and in wet weather.
Figure 2, shows the growth forty-eight hours
Hater. The growth is most rapid when the
air is very warm and damp. Figure 3, (a.)
-exhibits the cuticle of a wheat stalk broken
’up by a great bundle of rust plants. Figure
-3, (b. and c.) exhibits one each of the dry
r rust-cells from wheat and oats magnified eight
' hundred diameters.
These cells are what produce the red stain
‘from rusty green wheat, and the pungent,
* heavy dust made in threshing such wheat
'when ripe. Figure 4, shows development of
‘the rust after the wheat stalk is dead. Figure
5 presents another form of the plant, devel
oped later, as the straw begins to decay ; the
•common rust-cells spreading out on the sur
face like the leaves of the dock, and the
“ Phragmidia,” (once supposed to be another
species) shooting up from the centre like the
stem of said dock. In figure 6, we see the
bundle of rust phragmidia breaking up into
apparent pods, each of which contains m3’ri
;nds of germ spores.
Fig. I.—Showing spores—a—just fastened to
stem of wheat. Spore is greatly magnified.
Fig. 2.—Showing growth 48 hours later. Mag
nified.
Fig. 3.—Rust at—a—breaking through cuticle
•of straw—b—rust cell from wheat—c—rust cell
from oats—b and c magnified about 800 diameters.
Fits. 4.—Showing second stage of rust; greatly
magnified.
C‘%,
'wheat
Fig. o. — 3d stage of rust,
showing at—a—cluster of
rust cells with phragmidium
growing from top—b—de-
tached phragmidium of
wheat rust—c—detached
phragmidium of oat rust.
Rust much magnified.
We have here exhibited the successive
growths from about the 20th of May till
It will be noticed that the round cell and
phraginidium on the wheat are both somewhat
different from those on the oat.
Even greater differences are noted in the
growth from the rose, pine, cedar, apple, etc.,
resulting from different species or different
food ; which of the two causes not yet being
fully known.
If space allowed we would be pleased to
illustrate the different results of attacks on a
smooth, hard stalk of wheat, and on a rough,
wrinkled stalk, such as is exhibited in the
cuts above. From which illustration we
would show that when the cuticle, or outside
covering, of the wheat stalk or blade is hard,
smooth and perfect as it ought to be in
healthy growth, the rust germ, falling on it,
finds lodgment with difficulty, and even when
the spore sticks, its rootlet cannot penetrate
into the sap of the wheat plant.
Thus no serious harm results, if the wheat
or oat plant is properly covered with a thick,
heavy cuticle or epidermis such as the wheat
and oats farther north are apt to have.
This, and what follows, will fully explain
the exemption from rust in certain species of
wheat and oats for a short time after said
species are brought from hardier climes ; and
it will also be seen why such exemption does
not continue under a southern culture and
climate.
The microscope and anatysis reveal to us
that wheat and oats and all such plants are
covered on the outside with a bard, rocky
cuticle, which is a kind of glass : on a cane
it is so thick and hard as to severely try a
knife of the very best metal. This glass is a
salt, and its acid is silex, or sand, while the
base may be potash, clay, soda, lime, mag
nesia, or any good alkali, forming different
kinds of glass; a9 potassium, aluminum,
sodium, calcium, magnesium and other sili
cates. Wc see then, that to make secure pro
j tection for any plant, the soil must contain a
good amount of silicon or sand and so much
of good alkali as may be needed to combine
with this sand.
The oxides In the clay are also probabl} 7
important in forming cuticle and fibre. It
has been assumed by our writers on agricul
ture that our lands here contain inexhaustible
supplies of sand and alkali of some sort;
hence they have turned all their attention, in
fertilizers, to keeping up due quantities of
phosphates and nitrogenous compounds. This
is probably a great mistake; such as the
world is ever making by having public atten
tion all turned in one direction. We are al
ways oscillating from one extreme to the
other and thus missing the golden mean.
Many of our stiff, red lands need sand more
than ammonia, and an admixture of clay
would frequently more improve the loose sand
beds than any quantity of phosphoric acid.
We have just watched with great care a small
piece of wheat which was almost ruined from
lack of sand and alkali.
The ground on which it grew bad beer,
greatly enriched by pea cfops and other de
posits of organic matter; the culture was
light, the sand and clay or lime were not suf
ficiently mixed or brought to the surface;
the wheat grew up vcr} T rapidly and tall, but
having no strengthening material, so soon as
it began to head, it nearly all tumbled to the
ground ; and although the portion standing
ripened very early, it was greatly injured by
the rust. The stalks under the microscope
showed very thin walls, little fibre and
scarcely any cuticle.
During the last four or five years we have
had many experiments with wheat and other
plants conducted carefully, in order to dis
cover the causes and prevention of rust.
Last year, on a piece of gray land, having
plenty of sand, Mr. 8. P. Orr, of Jackson,
sowed some wheat, first carefully subsoiling
a certain portion, and thereby mixing a small
part of the clay or lime with the sand.
The section subsoiled and otherwise treated
exactly as the other, produced much better
wheat, which bad on it scarcely anj’ rust,
while on the other part great damage resulted
from that fungus.
Almost any farmer can tell us that on a
sandy soil where a log-heap, especially hick
ory, lias been burned and wheat sown there
the same season, on that particular spot no
serious damage will come from rust.
The alkali of the ashes and the sand of the
soil, uniting, form a splendid cuticle for the
wheat stalks ; and such stalks, on examina
tion, will be found a9 bright and a9 smooth as
glass. In 1879, Mr. Frank Stark, of Jackson
county, used salt on a piece of gra}’ land, and
thereby prevented rust in cotton, while the
surrounding portions were much damaged.
Salt furnishes the soda, an alkali. The same
year, Mr. F. A. Glenn, in Floyd county, on
a piece of land having an abundance of lime,
but no sand, used the salt without any bene
ficial result.
It has been often noticed and remarked by
farmers, that rust first makes its appearance,
in wheat, about those spots where there had
been wet-weaiher springs leaching away all
the available alkali.
Stable manure also tends to prevent rust
by its stimulus and aid in uniting the alkalis
and sand. Many other similar facts result’
ing from experiments are in our possession,
and they all seem to point significantly to the
importance of having these plant foods in the
soil and having them well mixed.
After five years of inquiry and investiga
tion, and four years of careful observation
with the microscope, the conviction is very
decided in our mind, that the rust can flever
seriously damage the wheat or oat which has
an abundant supply of sand and alkali, and,
consequently, a thick, smooth cuticle.*
It is almost certain that this fungus first
♦Since the above was written, Major Jones and
Dr. Henry, of Elbert county, have reported to me
some experiments in that county with kainit, a
I much not.ash nr
Fig. 6.—Show
ing cluster of ma
ture spores fallen
apart and each
containing many
germs. Greatly
magnified.
attacks those stalks which, from exposed
roots, bad culture and deficient food, are un
healthy and have a rough exterior and thin
epidermis.
\\ e do not mention the many favorable re
sults at the North and West from the use of
hall-leached ashes, lime or alkalies of some
form. They are before the public, and each
one can judge for himself. Having thus
glanced at some of the causes of disaster from
rust, we next suggest some appropriate
REMEDIES.
We would not depreciate the importance of
a rich humus and good fertilizers containing
nitrogenous compounds; for a vigorous,
healthy growtli is the first and probably the
most important preventive.
As in man, so in plants, vigorous health is
generally the best protection against epi
demic disease. First, then, let the ground
be well fertilized, adding .a small portion of
sand where there is a great predominance of
clay ; and add ashes, clay or some alkali,
where it is very sandy. This last may be
done partly by subsoiling. Then let it be
well broken and thoroughly pulverized and
mixed, before the seed is sown. This will
perhaps cost more labor on one acre ; but one
acre may be made to produce from three to
five times as much as it has yielded by the
old plan. Second, wo suggest that they get
an}' good so-called rust proof variety, and
keep it so by a proper culture and the means
here indicated. As we now cultivate wheat,
no variety will remain rust proof here more
than three or four years. After soaking in
blaestone, to destroy all diseased grains, let
it be drilled and covered evenly, or, if sown,
covered with a harrow.
Then let the ground be rolled or brushed,
breaking down all ridges, thereby preventing
the freezing and thawing from exposing the
! root3 and producing rough, unhealthy stalks.
All the facts and suggestions here given in
reference to wheat, apply in general as well
to oats.
The remedies indicated are very simple
and may be easily tried by almost any one.
As stated above, they have been frequently
applied as direct tests; and without an} T
reference to rusts they have been oftener used
with beneficial results. No harm can possibly
result from completing the experiments. Let
every farmer save all the ashes possible, and,
if practicable, in the fall, just before he sows
his wheat, let the dry vegetation on the ground
be burned. Riles of old straw and leaves
hauled there and burned, just before breaking,
will prove a great benefit, as it will not only
furnish some alkali but will destroy myriads
of seed spores and insect germs.
In former papers we have several times
suggested that the burning of old fields and
leaf heaps in the woods would greatly lessen
onr disasters from all fungous growth and
insect attack, as well as protect our timbers
and prevent many diseases to which humanity
is here subject.
Our suggestions have been opposed with
more bitterness than reason. Oar facts still
stand ; our arguments have never been re
futed, and direct experiments conducted du
ring the past three years to solve some of
these problems, go far to prove that the burn
ing of woods and old fields about the first of
December, or later in some parts of the {State,
would contribute greatly to the safety of our
crops, the value of our timber and lands, and
to the protection of man against disease.
Under Divine guidance, the Jews used fire
as the great purifier, and here in the South,
where we have such accumulations of decay
ing vegetable matter, in old fields and virgin
forests, which heaps are the natural food of
rust, smut, blast, and all fungous growth, we
can hardly expect perfect exemption to ce
reals or fruit trees until we destroy by fire
some of these hot beds and reduce the infinite
production of fungous spores and insect
germs. Any other remedy seems now to
promise little more than alleviation to many
of these evils. Science, however, is gathering
immense stores from this field of investiga
tion. In the past few years the microscope
has opened one of the richest Golcondas of
knowledge and revealed to us many of those
masked enemies from which animal and plant
have been so long suffering; and we hope
that human intellect will soon find remedies
or protection against these secret foes, reduce
the ills to which human flesh is heir, and
guard our crops against blast and rust and
all fungoid growth. It is not at all impossi
ble that the bold enterprise and persistent
energy which chain the lightning and harness
the steam, may convert the red rust into a
source of wealth, and from the deadly blast
distill the elixir of life.
John W. Glenn.
W WY\Sw\x C\W\Wy \.\WB, .
Letters from Russia depict a sad condition
of things as regards the Jews. It is no rare
occurrence, especially in the south, for rich
Jews to be falsely accused of some imaginary
crime and their property confiscated. The
victims are glad to escape with their lives,
and if they venture to return they are seized
as vagabonds or as bearing an assumed name,
and banished to Siberia or removed to distant
parts of the empire.
During one of the recent riots in southern
Russia a man entered a baker shop kept b3’
a Jewess and bought a loaf of bread, which
he began to eat as he went out. As soon ss
he reached the street he threw himself upon
the ground and began writhing about as
though in excruciating pain, at the same time
exclaiming, “ I am poisoned ! The Jews have
poisoned me!” A crowd assembled, and
threatening demonstration were made against
the sliop. It would undoubtedly have been
sacked within a few minutes, and its occupants
maltreated and perhaps killed, had not the
Jewess by whom the bread had been sold
stepped out, snatched the bread from the
writhing wretch on the ground, and begun to
eat it herself before the eves of the mob.
LMpi kkkkkkkk
'llic loading ol*lo-lsiy a^rec
that most diseases are caused by disordered Kid
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This Remedy, which has done such wonders, is
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BUTLER'S
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GENERAL ACC NT fOR
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WE ARE WELL STOCKED WITH
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to feed the hungry multitudes, and will sell our
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Jefferson, Ga., Aug. 19, ISSI.
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A
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\\u\ Yw Cowv v vwtev\ Y\\av\ YV e \\ \uv\ AY c Swvp .
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FIMIERE is no fisc going to Atlanta, Athens, Gainesville, Jefferson, or any other largo city or
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HENRY HUMAN,
apl 15 Pond Fork, Jack Son county, Georgia.
BALDWIN & BURKETT,
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DEALERS IN
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WE HAVE just received the largest and most complete stock of Hoots and Shoes ercr brought
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Athens, Ga., October Ist, 1880.
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