Cereal Rust Laboratory records

The Cereal Rust Laboratory Records are composed of materials generated through research and field work performed in four areas : Barberry eradication, a decades-long national program aimed at eliminating the Common Barberry plant; stem rust epidemiology, investigations of how rusts spread; race studies, containing data collected about different strains of rust and their mutations; and rust nurseries, controlled environments where plants are exposed to rusts strains to determine how and why plants are vulnerable to rusts. The collection includes correspondence, ledgers, reports, studies, publications, news clippings, scrapbooks, maps, photographs and slides. Collection date range is 1846 to 2007, with the bulk of the material dating from 1919-1960.

Included in the collection are materials generated by the Minnesota-based Rust Prevention Association (later renamed the Conference for the Prevention of Grain Rust (1921) and still later the Crop Quality Council), which worked in tandem with the Bureau of Plant Industry's Office of Cereal Investigations to conduct field observations and heighten public awareness of the need to control rust spread by eliminating the Common Barberry. Photographs contained in annual state Barberry Eradication Campaign reports, as well as the Photograph series offer an in-depth look at eradication efforts carried out by student and civilian workers, an insight into transitions in farming equipment, fencing, farm buildings, transportation and landscape planting in the early 20th century.

A substantial part of the collection consists of reports generated by field agents involved in two projects: the Barberry Eradication Campaign and rust epidemiology surveys. Initially administered independently, the epidemiology surveys became part of the eradication campaign in 1924. The campaign sent workers -- funded at first by state and private funding, and later by WPA funds -- into towns, farms and fields to dig up, pull out or poison barberry plants. The epidemiology workers were a smaller, academically trained crew that worked for the USDA and the Rust Prevention Association observing and recording outbreaks and sending observations back to the Cereal Rust Laboratory. Daily, weekly and seasonal observations were sent to the Cereal Rust Lab form the original studies in 1917-1920 until the late 1950s.

The collection is organized into five series:

Series 1, Barberry Eradication Campaigns, includes material generated by state and national Barberry eradication efforts. It is divided in to six sub-series:

Series 2. Stem Rust Epidemiology, contains materials relating to the study of the spread of stem rust. It is divided into 4 subseries:

Series 3. Rust Mutation Studies and Rust Nursery Observations, consists of materials concerning the physiological specialization and change in rust strains (races), including notes from field and laboratory observations, summaries, reports of controlled experimentation with rust growth on crops, and selected reprints and reports of experiments at rust nurseries in the United States, Europe and Russia.

Series 4. Crop Losses Due to Stem Rust. This section also contains information about the rust prevention labor force in the 1970s and reports recording crop loss due to stem rust by location.

Series 5. Photographs and Slides. Primarily photos of field work in the Barberry eradication program and rust infestations in rural and city and town settings. Also includes photos of infected plants, photos taken under the microscope of rust spores and glass and film slides. Additional photographs can be found interspersed throughout the collection, most notably in Series 1, subseries 1, Barberry Eradication Campaigns, and Subseries 4, Minnesota Barberry Campaigns.