266 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Hatch. 



Work under tlie Hatch Fund consists of the general routine diagnosis 

 and determination of laboralorj^ material in connection with the Plant 

 Disease Survey. About 600 specimens were handled last year. The 

 work on cucumber diseases is financed from this fund. 



Investigation of transportational diseases which has been carried 

 on for some time bv Mr. Nelson and mvself has been continued from time 

 to time. Most important advances have been made in the study of the 

 breakdown of the tissues of lettuce, cabbage, and citrus fruits under 

 storage with deficiency of oxygen. 



Greenhouse diseases have been investigated and considerable experi- 

 mental work carried on to determine the feasibility of using lime sulphur 

 as a greenhouse spray for control of tomato leaf mold. 



State Funds. 



Potato disease investigations: 



Seed treatment investigations have been cai-ried on following the 

 plan of other years and a bod}' of knowledge has been developed x-over- 

 ing the effects of different times and different strengths of application of 

 certain fungicides. In the main^ these corroborate the results of former 

 years. Mr. J. E. Kotila has completed careful investigations of the 

 Black Leg disease of potato, which is very important in the Upper Pen- 

 insula. 



Bean disease investigations: 



Bean mosaic investigations are being carried on by Mr. Eay Nelson 

 and in this work emphasis is being placed upon the nature of the in- 

 fectious material and its method of dissemination in the field. 



Celery disease investigations: 



Excellent progress has been made in the solution of the celerj^ stunt 

 disease, in that Mr. Nelson completed decisive experiments and has 

 shown that this disease is typical Fusarium Wilt. Seed from a resistant 

 plant has been obtained and tests of this seed are at present in progress. 

 Work on the Phoma disease of celery is being prepared for publication. 



Cereal disease investigations: 



Samples of Bed Eock wheat sent to the College for. certification have 

 been tested for relative prevalence of smut. These samples when planted 

 gave varying amounts of smut in the crop. The experience has given an 

 index as to the amount of smut which may be tolerated in wheat to be 

 used for seed purposes. Further field tests of various methods of treat- 

 ment have shown that for complete control of stinking smut the method 

 in which the grain is immersed in water and the smut balls skimmed off 

 must be used. The so-called sprinkling method which is commonly em- 

 ployed will not completely eradicate smut from the grain, although it 

 will reduce the smut of an excessivelj'^ smutty sample to an extremely 

 small amount. The drj^ method w^orks excellently with a fairly clean 

 sample and reduces smut almost to the vanishing point, but not as a 

 clean-up measure for severely infested grains. 



Publications : 



Aside from occasional articles in the Quarterly Bulletin the writer has 

 completed an article on Aster Wilt for the Michigan State Florists' 

 Annual Report, and a Report on the Plant Diseases in Michigan for 

 1919 will appear in the Michigan Academy of Science Report in the same 



