1191] The Ottawa Naturalist. 37 



BOOK NOTICE. 



''Phytopathology": Official Organ of the American Phyto- 

 pathological Society. Volume I., No. 1, February, 1911. 

 Published bi-monthly for the Society by Andrus & Church, 

 Printers, Ithaca, N.Y. 



Phytopathology, the pathology or study of diseases of 

 plants, occupies a prominent position in the many Agricultural 

 Experiment Stations in the United States. The Bureau 

 of Plant Industry of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, at Washington, D.C., employs a large and 

 efficient staff of specialists, devoting the whole of their time to 

 the study of minute plant organisms causing disease in vegeta- 

 tion of all kinds, and also to the solution of the perplexing 

 problems connected with the protection of plant life. Dr. 

 Erwin F. Smith, who ranks among the most prominent members 

 of the staff, is in charge of the Laboratory of Plant Pathology. 

 His laboratory, which I have had the pleasure of visiting occa- 

 sionally, is and deserves to be, because of its magnificent equip- 

 ment, the basis of all plant pathological work of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry. It receives an appropriation of from $19,000 

 to $22,500 per annum of which nearly $15,000 is paid in salaries. 

 Under his direction there are, besides the central laboratory, 

 other laboratories devoted to the investigation of diseases of 

 forest trees, grain, fodder, vegetable and other crops, each with 

 separate endowments. 



Nearly every State possesses its own Experiment Station* 

 on the staff of which there are one or more plant pathologists of 

 great activity. This activity manifests itself every year by the 

 large amount of publications, in form of Bulletins and Annual 

 Reports, of more or less important nature, distributed gra- 

 tuitously throughout the different States. The Americans take 

 far more interest in the progress of this comparatively new 

 science, than may be boasted of elsewhere, probably with the 

 exception of Germany the home and birthplace of this dis- 

 cipline. The extent of their experiments in field and laboratory 

 are truly American. One may say that to each experimental 

 plant in Europe, there are a hundred, or more, in the United 

 States. 



In view of these facts it is only surprising that, with so 

 large a body of trained men interested in the study of diseases, 

 the birth of a society devoted to phytopathological interests, 

 has not taken place sooner. It was my privilege to be present 

 at the inaugural meeting of the'new Phytopathological Society, 

 held at Boston at the time of the meeting of the American Asso- 



