IX. BOTANY IN THE EXTENSION WORK. 



I. THE REPORT ON THE TEACHING ENTERPRISES OF 



THE YEAR. 



Winter course students. — During the winter-course session of 

 1906 this Department. offered a course in Farm Botany and Plant 

 Di'[,eases, which consisted of one lecture and one laboratory period 

 each week. The work was given in the laboratory of the Botanical 

 DeparLment of the University, the apparatus and supplies being 

 furnished chiefly by that Department and to which Department I 

 believe all the laboratory fees were credited. Fifty students made 

 requests to take this work. Provision, however, had been made for 

 only twenty-five so that it was necessary to limit the number of those 

 entering. The original limit was increased to forty by making an 

 extra effort and giving some of the work on Saturday afternoon. 

 This number was finally reduced in various ways to twenty-nine, 

 most of which number successfully completed the work. 



Extension teaching among the farmers of the State. — This work 

 consisted of several distinct lines : first. Farmers' Institutes. Four 

 Farmers' Institutes were attended during the year 1906 and 1907, 

 two or three lectures being delivered at each meeting. The sub- 

 jects discussed were Fire Blight, Apple Tree Cankers, Bean Dis- 

 eases, Brown Rot of Peaches, Cucumber, Onion and Celery Diseases. 

 The structure and nature of the leguminous tubercles were also ex- 

 plained. Besides these other miscellaneous diseases were taken up 

 upon special request of those present at the meetings. I have made 

 it a practice during the past year to carry a compound microscope 

 with me, together with such specimens as were necessary to demon- 

 strate the talk in hand. I found a microscope a most excellent 

 adjunct to the work. The fact that a man might by looking through 

 the microscope, see the fungus or bacterium under discussion made 

 a great deal of difference in getting his attention and arousing his 

 interest. 



Horticultural meetings. — Two horticultural meetings were at- 

 tended during the year, — the Western New York State Horticul- 

 tural Society and the New York State Fruit Growers' Association. 

 At the former a paper was presented on the Blight Canker of Apple 

 Trees. At the latter an exhibit of plant diseases was made. 



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