The Desert of Wheat

section in rye, another half in wheat-Turkey Red-and this secti

avy at the heads, as if struggling to burst. A fragrant, dry, wheaty smell, mingled with dust, came on the soft summer breeze, and a faint silken rustle. The greenish, alm

admiration of the farmer who aspired high. "In fact, it's the only fin

eports are poor. If we get rain over the Bend country we'll have onl

this particular field, identical with all the others for miles around, shoul

father used a method of soil cultivation intended to conserve moisture. The seed wheat was especially selecte

ls!" ejacula

it that when it's green and

esert country because it resists drought, it produces large yield, it does not b

nd there pulling a shaft of wheat and examining it. The girl gazed

sands of acres-but no

difference?"

d pensive a

hat would you cal

ert of wheat! But no on

any Waters.' I think those

desert b

gone to wheat. It makes me think-oppresses me. All this means that we live by wheat alone. T

er. And they have come to speak to me-a language I don't understand yet. But I mean-what you see-the growing wheat here, the field of clods over there, the wind and d

oung couple, carrying some

s. I never saw so little of it as there is here. In fact, we know scarcely nothin' about smut an' its cure, if there is any. You farmers who rai

asite, or fungus, liv

id of it. One farmer has one idea, an' some one else another. What could be of greater importance to a farmer? We're at war. The men who claim to know s

in her direct blue eyes. The circumstance embarrassed him, though it tugged at the flood-gates of his knowledge. He could talk about wheat, an

you can say about wheat," she sa

fectionate hand on her shoulder. "She's a fa

The girl blushed. Dorn smiled

ortune will never befa

terested. I've never been in the Bend before-in your desert of wheat. I never before felt the greatness of loving the soil-or caring for

of his authorities, Heald and Woolman, of the State Agricul

essentially similar in their effects and their life-history. Tilletia tritici, or the rough-spored variety, is the common stinking smu

all of average size contains a sufficient number of spores to give one for each grain of wheat in five or six bushels. It takes eight smut spores to equal the diameter of a human hair. Normal wheat grains from an infected field may have so m

smut spore germinates and produces first a stage of the smut plant in the soil. This first stage never infects a young seedling direct, but gives rise to secondary spores, or sporida, from which infection t

at the smut fungus is living at the expense of its host plant, the wheat, and its effect on the host may be summarized as follows: The consum

e infected heads previous to maturity exhibit a darker green color, and remain green longer than the normal heads. In some varie

anting it every season with their seed wheat. Wheat taken from a smutty crop will have countless numbers of loose spores adhering to the grains,

smutty crop; second, soil infection from wind-blown spores. Experiments have shown that separated spores from crushed smut balls l

rather by the combined use of various methods: crop rotation; the use of clean seed; see

ut from a previous crop may be a source of infection. Experience shows that a fall stubble crop is less liable to smut infection than a crop following summer fallow. The apparent explanation for this con

oil infection or imperfect treatment. The principle of the chemical treatment is to use a poison which will kill the superficial spores of the smut and

. The factors which always influence the amount of smut are the temperature of the soil during the germinating period, the amount of soil moisture, and the depth of seedin

d by various farmers, and they r

er the first fall rains is generally ef

st good fall rains-is also an effective practice. Fall tillag

superior resistance, but rather to the fact that they escape infection. If only spring wheats were grown our smut problem would largely disappear; but a return to this practice is not suggested, sinc

his listeners, they walked back through the yard toward the

men talkin' to my d

r. Upon the moment they glanced up to see Mr. Anderson approaching, and they rather hurriedly departed. Dorn had noted a go

e I.W.W.'s," declared Ande

d on down the road

y'll sleep to-nig

hat the two men wanted. And the reply he g

English?" went

themselves understood

nderson's man, and it was evident that the blunt rancher restrained himself. He helped

me," he said. "Which makes up for your dad! I'll run over here again

I'll be happy to see you,"

I'll put it off another year, an' cuss t

't know how I'd-we'd eve

far did you say it was to Pa

orn. "If it wasn't for-for father I'd lik

the car, and in the shade of her hat and the veil she was adjusting her eyes seemed very dark and

ood-by," she said,

ting thoughts. It flashed over him with dread certainty that he had fallen in love with her. The shock struck h