2 FUifGI AND FUNGICIDES 



at nearly half a million dollars ; and careful estimates 

 made by authoritatiye observers in widely separated 

 States indicate that the average yearly loss of oats in the 

 United States due to smut equals, or exceeds, one-tenth 

 the entire crop. Professor Kellerman estimated the loss 

 in Kansas, in 1888, at $1,382,328.31; and in 1889, at 

 8850,534.76. The loss in Indiana from the same cause, 

 in 1889, was estimated by Professor Arthur at $797,526 ; 

 and in 1890, at $605,352. 



It is probable that fruits suffer an even greater pro- 

 portionate injury than do the grains. *'The blights 

 and rots of the fruit plantations," said Professor Burrill, 

 several years ago, ^^ would, if exactly and certainly ex- 

 pressed in dollars and cents, frighten cultivators from 

 their business." The loss from apple scab, throughout 

 most of the apple-growing regions of the country, ranges 

 from one-sixth to one-half of the entire product. The 

 strawberry blight, in many localities, often ruins crops 

 of this luscious fruit. The rots and mildews affecting 

 grapes have led to the extermination of hundreds of 

 vineyards. The loss of peaches from the brown rot on 

 the Chesaj)eake and Delaware peninsulas, in 1888, was 

 estimated by competent observers at from $400,000 to 

 $600,000. Similar statements could be made concern- 

 ing nearly all our fruits. 



The vegetable and field crops, the flowers and orna- 

 mental plants, and even the shade trees, do not fare 

 much better. Xearly all have enemies that cause serious 

 damage. Over a large section of country the usual loss 

 of potatoes from fungus enemies varies from ten to 

 forty per cent, of the crop. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARASITIC FUNGI 



To illustrate the life- history of the fungi causing 

 the fungous diseases of growing 2:)lants, we will begin 

 with a familiar example of vegetable life— the Indian 



