New York Agricultubal Experiment Station. 17 



to 100 barrels per acre. The results of the experiments were so 

 satisfactory that we can unhesitatingly recommend the treatment 

 for fields on which smut has caused a loss of as much as one- 

 third of the crop. The proper quantity to use appears to be 100 

 pounds of sulphur and 50 pounds of lime per acre. It will not do 

 to apply the sulphur and lime broadcast, as they seem to have 

 no effect upon the smut when applied in that way. The applica- 

 tion must be made in the open rows before, or while, sowing the 

 seed. 



Plant diseases caused hy RMzoctonia. — RJiizoctonia is a form- 

 genus including several species of sterile fungi which cause root- 

 rot, stem-rot and damping-off diseases of various cultivated 

 plants. In Europe, considerable attention has been given to 

 Rhizocionia diseases, but in this country their investigation has 

 been neglected, although it appears that such diseases are com- 

 mon here and some of them very destructive. 



This Station, in cooperation with the Cornell University Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, has undertaken an exhaustive study 

 of RMzoctonia diseases. A preliminary report of the investiga- 

 tions was published as Bulletin 186. 



Fruit-disease survey of Western New York. — In the season of 

 1000 the Station made a fruit-disease survey of Western New York 

 similar to the one made in the Hudson Valley in 1899'. This survey 

 has brought to light several new and important facts concerning 

 fruit diseases. Among other things, it has been discovered that 

 there exists in this State a destructive raspberry canewblight 

 which is caused by a fungus belonging to the genus Goniothyrium. 

 This disease will be anade the subject of a special investigation 

 during the coming season. 



DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



The palmer wot^i. — The life history of this species, Ypsolopus 



pometelliis, has been worked out during the past season. Apple 



leaves and young apples constitute the principal food of the 



caterpillars. Although well distributed' throughout Western 



2 



