EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 259 



Dr. E. A. Bessej^, College. 



Dear Dr. Bessey — At your request, I present the following report of 

 the work of the year. It may be pointed out that research work done 

 during the war period necessarily took on a different character in some 

 respects from the work of previous years. Certain lines of fundamental 

 research which are carried on under Adams projects were laid aside for 

 work of an emergency nature. For example, it became very evident that 

 seed treatment of gi-ains to prevent smut was a matter of state and na- 

 tional concern, and :ill forces of the Experiment Station were concentrated 

 in the attempt to (Un'elop methods suitnl)le to the grave situation brought 

 up by the needs of the food crisis and the labor shortage. The results of 

 the work on grain treatments are given in another place in this report. 



As is evident from your own discussion of the personnel of the depart- 

 ment, the war made many changes in the staff and prevented in part 

 the carrying forward of experiment station projects. It is 'gratifying, 

 however, to be able to report that bj^ means of various assistants, chiefly 

 women, it was possible to continue nearly all the lines of experiment 

 station endeavor. And finally, it should be pointed out that the call for 

 extension work in plant pathology was more pressing during the war period 

 than ever. This work, in part, took the form of preparation of articles for 

 the college press service and in part the giving of lectures and demonstra- 

 tions at farmer's schools, institutes, etc. It must be conceded that ex- 

 tension activities and experiment station activities are difficult to reconcile, 

 although it is certainly true that certain kinds of extension work can 

 best be done by the experiment station, having first-hand knowledge of 

 the facts. It is believed, from the work carried on, that the Experiment 

 Station work has not been unduly injured by the demands of the war 

 period, but it is to be admitted that work of a purely extension nature 

 should not be pushed in peace times to the extent made necessary by the 

 war. With this introductory summary of the general conditions under 

 which the work of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, was done, I will 

 proceed to report on the various projects being carried on under my 

 direction. 



ADAMS 5b. 



This project is entitled: "To determine with some plant pathogenes 

 of the Fungi Imperfecti, biological relations which may give a basis for 

 identification and classification as well as understanding of physiological 

 and life history problems. The Fungi Imperfecti form a group which at 

 present has no basis for classification other than a highly artifical one. 

 Attention will be concentrated on the section of the group represented by 

 the genus phoma and its close allies." 



The project as outlined is a very important piece of research work, and 

 one which involves the development of a new technique in handling fungi. 

 It recognizes, in the first place, the great complexity of the forms of the 

 fungi imperfecti and the present unsatisfactory methods of diagnosis and 

 cla-ssification. The purpose of the investigation is to determine biological 

 methods whereby the organisms may be classified. For the purpose of the 

 experiment, some fifty cultures of organisms of the Sphaeropsidales are 

 carried in pure culture and these cultures have been maintained. During 

 this work on the pure culture of several members of each of the important 

 genera, it has been found that there are certain characters of mycelial growth 

 which are constant for the genus. Certain peculiarities of growth and 



