Observations on take-all and eyespot diseases of wheat in Yorkshire

Wheat crops were surveyed in Yorkshire from 1944 to 1946 on farms where crops were reported to be unsatisfactory. Take-all ( Ophiobolus graminis (Sacc.) Sacc.) and eyespot ( Cercosporella herpotrichoides Fron.) were both found to be present; the latter is the most serious trouble on the better wheat lands.
The variation in the incidence of these diseases on selected farms during the three seasons has been compared.
The effect of rotation has been examined; both diseases were found to be encouraged by too frequent cropping with wheat or barley. The incidence of disease in wheat crops following a 1-year seeds ley was found to be influenced by the nurse crop used to undersow the seeds, and also by the time at which the ley was ploughed up. Oats were found to be preferable to either wheat or barley as a nurse crop, and in 1946 late ploughing considerably reduced the amount of eyespot disease present in the following wheat crop.
A 1-year ley is considered to be of too short a duration to ensure the disappearance from the soil of Ophiobolus graminis and Cercosporella herpotrichoides surviving from the previous crop, and a period of 2–3 years is suggested as being desirable.