Halsted : Mycological Notes 75 



safely counted upon as being present. The beet plant is a quick" 

 growing annual that lends itself especially well to plot experiments- 

 it IS low-growing, a habit of considerable importance in spraying • 

 the leaves are large and the disease is conspicuous. Use has been 

 made of nearly all of the full list of the more common vegetables 

 and vegetable-fruit plants and none of them are equal to the beet 

 as a subject for testing the application of fungicides. 



During 1894, the first year that beets were grown upon the 

 Experiment Area, only Mangel wurzels were grown and the Bor- 

 deaux mixture gave an increase over the check of 26 per cent. 

 In 1896 four kinds of Bordeaux, namely, the ordinary sort made 

 with lime was used as a standard with which was compared three 

 other kinds, namely, soda-bordeaux, potash-bordeaux and 

 monia-bordeaux, the lime being replaced with other alkalies, soda, 

 potash and ammonia respectively. In this year the increase in 

 crop accredited to the Bordeaux mixture was 46.5 per cent, for 

 the roots and 77.5 per cent, for the foliage and these were ex- 

 ceeded by the potash-bordeaux which gave 47-5 per cent, gain in 

 roots and 78.5 per cent, of leaves. 



In 1 897 five varieties of beets were grown in order to study 

 the susceptibility of the different sorts to the blight and the rela- 

 tive effects the various fungicides might have upon them. Out of 

 this list the three following were selected for further use, namely 

 "Long blood-red," " Swiss chard " and "Long Manrel wuiv.el"' 



am- 



as representing three widely separated types of beets. In passing 

 It maybe mentioned that the "Swiss chard" is a form of beel 

 producing small roots and a large development of leaves with 

 broad etiolated petioles that become the edible portion of the 

 plant. This variety blights badly and becomes a better test of 

 the value of a fungicide than beets of the ordinary sort where the 

 root-weight is the deciding point. In short, the experience of the 

 five years in finding the most suitable plant upon which to experi- 

 ment with fungicides has led gradually to the acceptance of the 

 beets and of these the "Swiss chard" is the one of greatest value 

 During 1898, the "Chard" in the belts sprayed with Bor- 

 deaux and the soda-bordeaux w^ere conspicuous for their com- 

 parative freedom from blight and the latter was somewhat ahead 

 of the Bordeaux mixture. This soda-bordeaux is made accord- 



