New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 29 



in use for determining the number of bacteria present in soils, which 

 has been reported in Technical Bulletin No. 38. The chief 

 immediate value of the work will be to other workers in agricultural 

 bacteriology, but ultimately the use of the new media suggested in 

 this bulletin should give us facts of practical importance in develop- 

 ing or controlling the fertility of the soil. 



Other bacteriological studies. — No publications have been made 

 during the year on the study of the barn conditions in relation to 

 the germ content of milk, but a bulletin is in manuscript form 

 and should go to the printer within a month. 'A bulletin on the 

 lack of relationship between bacterial count and barn scores is in 

 about the same stage. Field studies on the practical application 

 of the microscopical technique have been made during the year 

 both in connection with the Sheffield Farms-Slawson-Decker Co., 

 at Hobart, and locally, but these are not completed as yet. 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



Currant felt-rust and whitepine blister-rust. — These two diseases 

 are caused by the same fungus, Cronartium ribicola, in different 

 stages of its life cycle. On account of repeated outbreaks of felt- 

 rust on currants at Geneva unaccompanied, apparently, by the 

 occurrence of blister-rust on pines in the vicinity, it was suspected 

 that, contrary to accepted belief, the fungus may over-winter on 

 currants. Experiments have been made which, it is believed, 

 clear up this matter. Rusted currant plants were transplanted 

 (after the leaves had fallen) into greenhouses and forced into growth 

 during the winter. Since no trace of felt-rust appeared on the 

 new leaves of any of the 500 plants in the experiments, the con- 

 clusion has been reached that C. ribicola rarely, if ever, over-winters 

 on the currant. The subsequent discovery of two white pine trees 

 affected with blister-rust makes it possible, now, to account for 

 the outbreaks of currant felt-rust at Geneva without assuming that 

 the fungus over- winters on currants. Details of the experiments 

 have been published in Bulletin No. 374. 



Seed testing. — During the year 1913, 292 official samples of seed 

 were analyzed. Of these, 51, or 17.5 per ct., were violations of the 

 law; that is, although containing over three per ct. of foreign seeds 

 by count they were not so labeled when exposed for sale. The 

 percentage of violations was somewhat smaller than in 1912 when it 



