Excerpt from The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, Vol. 30: Illustrated With Plates

It has also occurred to me that some presumptive evidence might be Obtained of the prevalence and influence of rust and mildewjn India, by comparing the outturn of wheat for a series Of years, in those provinces in which the fungus certainly exists, with the climatic conditions prevailing during the earliest months of the year, when the wheat plants are In the stage of existence most liable to attack. Dr. George Watt, has kindly given me a tabular statement Showing the price of wheat (seers per rupee) for the 29 years, 1861 - 89, in the Central Provinces, Punjab, and north-west Provinces and Oudh and as this appeared to me to be a good index of the outturn of grain for each year, I have thrown the results into a graphic form in Table I. Unfortunately, meteorological data are available to me only from 1875. From a summary of meteorological conditions, prepared annually for the Sanitary Commissioner With the Government of India, I have ex, tracted the data necessary for my purpose, and have exhibited them in Table II. The weather during January, February and March is most important in this connection, not only because it has a maximum effect on the growth of the wheat plants themselves, independently of any fungal attack, but also because this is the season during which the parasite usually attacks these plants. The humidity of the air, the cloud proportion, and the rainfall, are the most important factors. A combination of all these in slight excess (except perhaps cloud) is, I presume, favourable to the growth of the host (wheat plants), and is certainly (especially in cluding cloud) favourable to the growth of the fungus. Now, If in any year we find that these climatic conditions were favourable to the growth Of the wheat plants, but that the outturn of wheat was, nevertheless, poor, we may with some plausibility attribute the deficiency of outturn to the repressive influence of the parasite; for otherwise I do not know how the deficient outturn could be accounted for. In order to render the meteorological data readily comprehensible, and comparable With the graphic repre sentatlon of the outturn of wheat each year, I have arranged them in a compressed tabular form, indicating excess over the average by X, and deficiency by D; whilst a normal condition is represented by N. Wherever a very decided condition, either of excess or deficiency, was noted in the meteorological report, I have enclosed the letter X or D within a circle. In a few instances the condition was not clear, and in such cases I have inserted a mark of interrogation.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.