Diseases of British Grasses and Herbage Legumes

Abstract

GRASS is one of the few crops which is still grown under semi–natural conditions; even the best–managed grassland still remains an association of plants, as opposed to the pure culture of most other crops. It is no idle coincidence that the pathology of grassland has been for so long neglected. The spread of diseases and pests among a mixed population is neither so rapid nor so extensive as in populations of a single species; the importance of grass diseases first came to be recognized when grasses were grown in pure culture for seed production. The practice of re–seeding pastures, and the wider use of temporary leys, strenuously advocated of recent years by the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, implies the improvement of grass strains for pasture and for hay production by selection and plant breeding. Among the difficulties of this work, the incidence of disease is by no means the least. The appearance of a bulletin on “Diseases of British Grasses and Herbage Legumes”, by Miss Sampson and Dr. J. H. Western, is a welcome reminder that this aspect of the drive for grassland improvement at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station has not been neglected. The senior author, Miss Sampson, is well known for her researches on diseases of grasses and herbage plants, and this bulletin is the outcome of some twenty years investigation at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station. Diseases of British Grasses and Herbage Legumes By Kathleen Sampson Dr. J. H. Western. (Issued for the Authors by the British Mycological Society.) Pp. vii + 85 + 8 plates. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1941.) 5s. net.