Fight Wheat Rust: The Common Barberry Spreads Wheat Rust, It's a Case of Barberry or Bread

A cream sheet headed 'Fight Wheat Rust' shows drawings of common and Japanese barberry, with notes on how to tell them apart and a four-step panel tracing rust from stubble spores to ruined wheat. The closing lines call it 'a case of barberry or bread' and urge the farmer to pluck 'this ruinous thorn'. Most of the sheet is identification and life-cycle information, with the fear-appeal carried by the 'ruined wheat' panel and the two-way slogan.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal

Date

1917

Period

First World War

Made by

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Region

North America

Country

United States

Medium

Poster

Issuer type

State

Regime

Wilson Administration

Leader

Woodrow Wilson

Audience

Domestic public

Purpose

Warn or inform

Themes

Science and technology, Home front

Event

World War I

Regime

Wilson administration

Leader

Woodrow Wilson

Source

Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are

Source

U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026

Rights

NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Department of Agriculture. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-164.

FIGHT WHEAT RUST

BANISH THE BARBERRY
[drawing caption: THE SPREADER OF STEM RUST]
AND SAVE THE WHEAT

The COMMON BARBERRY
SPREADS WHEAT RUST

THE JAPANESE BARBERRY IS HARMLESS

SAVE
JAPANESE BARBERRY
Berberis thunbergii
Notice:
Small leaves
simple spines

KILL
COMMON BARBERRY
Berberis vulgaris
Notice:
Leaves and spines
in groups of three.
Color green or purple

HOW COMMON BARBERRY
SPREADS WHEAT RUST
Black spores from stubble to
Barberry leaves in spring to
Young wheat as red rust and
Ending with black rust on ruined wheat

IT'S A CASE OF BARBERRY OR BREAD

PLUCK THIS RUINOUS THORN FROM
THE SIDE OF THE FARMER

[seal] U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE [seal]