Observations on ergot in cereal crops

Abstract

Several cases of ergot in barley encountered in 1941 have been investigated, and records have been examined of the occurrence of ergot in cereal crops in this country during the past 24 years. These indicate that ergot is found more frequently on rye than on wheat, barley or oat, this, in descending order, being their relative susceptibility. A more detailed examination of records of the occurrence on rye in the seasons 1939–42 indicates that the disease is more prevalent in northern districts than elsewhere; of 500 acres of rye surveyed in Suffolk and Norfolk in 1942 only three crops comprising 80 acres showed a trace of ergot. It is rare on both wheat and barley and little is known as to the susceptibility of their varieties, although on several occasions it has been noted on Rivet wheat, and has been recorded on Rivet and Triticum vulgare crosses. In this country there is no record of it having been found on oat, apart from the one specimen found in a field of mixed corn in Cambridgeshire.