^04 AGRICUI.TURE OF MAINE. 



truck farms which supply our tables with succulent vegetables 

 and in our floral gardens which give us an endless variety of 

 ornamental and useful plants ; and, in our pride, we feel that 

 there is no limit to the variety and to the amount we are capa- 

 ble of producing. Yet if we but look a little more carefully we 

 shall no doubt be amazed to find that ten per cent of the grain 

 in these fields is ruined by smut, that twelve per cent of the 

 fruit has rotted, and that fifteen to eighteen per cent of the 

 timber is badly decayed and unfit for use. Our amazement 

 increases when we find that the potatoes have blighted, the 

 ■onions have mildewed, and the crysanthemums have rusted; 

 and when we learn that there is scarcely a crop that is not 

 afifected by some disease, and several with many diseases. 

 Statistics tell us that the annual loss from oat smut in the 

 United States amounts to $6,500,000, and from wheat smut to 

 $14,000,000, that the loss from grain rust in the three states of 

 Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota amounted 

 to $10,000,000 in a single year, and in New York State alone 

 an equal loss resulted from timothy rust. In the year of 1905, 

 the loss from potato blight in the State of New York amounted 

 to $15,000,000 and the losses in other blight years have been 

 heavy. 



Of course, there are various ways by which plant diseases 

 may be controlled, or held in check. Spraying" with various 

 fungicides has been demonstrated time and time again to be 

 effective in preventing a large number of diseases if the 

 mixture is thoroughly applied at the proper time ; dusting with 

 sulphur aids in reducing the powdery mildews ; soil treatments 

 may entirely exterminate the destructive organisms in the soil ; 

 the loose smut of oats and bunt of wheat are easily and 

 cheaply controlled by treating the seed of the afifected grain ; 

 parasitic soil fungi may starve out during a rotation in which 

 the afifected host does not appear except at intervals of three 

 to five years: good cultural methods often do much in aerating 

 the plants and the soil and thus prevent infection from taking 

 place ; often we may be able to avoid a destructive disease 

 by planting seed selected from healthy plants, in a field known 

 to be free from the disease. But many of these methods are 

 expensive and some are only makeshifts at best. The more 

 satisfactory way would be to obtain plants that would not 



