HEALTH AND DISEASE 359 



At this point we meet the challenge of modern agricultural philosophy. 

 Is our farm prosperity dependent upon reducing production? And is tolera- 

 tion of disease losses an intelligent way of reducing over-production? As 

 to the first question, opinions may justifiably differ. To those, who like 

 Joseph, look forward to the seven lean years, any interference with pro- 

 duction may ultimately work hardship. And the others, the sponsors of 

 reduced production, insist at the same time on uniform production, the 

 "ever-normal granary." So long as plant disease is out of hand, we have no 

 control of production; the ever-normal granary is the shuttlecock of fungus 

 and weather 



Cotton diseases are causing a loss of one-fifth of the crop annually. Pre- 

 vention of these diseases, many of which can be controlled, does not need 

 to mean a 20 per cent, increase in American cotton production. Might it not 

 better mean a 20 per cent, reduction in the labor of planting, chopping, 

 and picking, some release of children and women from this grinding 

 drudgery, a release of 20 per cent, of depleted cotton land for a program 

 of soil restoration. Whichever philosophy we accept the moral is the same; 

 the prevention of waste from plant disease does not mean suffering from 

 overproduction; it means on the contrary an opportunity for improving 

 the lot of the farmer by aiding to buffer him against the shock of sudden 

 and unpredictable crop losses, and by giving him some measure of allevia- 

 tion of the economic and social burden under which he labors. 



This, then, is the challenge of American agriculture to the American 

 scientist: "You can see our problem; we are calling on you to help us," 

 a challenge blended of thousands of pleas to the Federal and State Experi- 

 ment Stations. 



And how are the scientists meeting this challenge? One of the newest 

 branches of science, plant pathology, already has enlisted a thousand or 

 more specialists. In Washington, at the state colleges, in private institu- 

 tions and plant industries these men are devoting their lives to a crusade 

 against plant disease. Much has been accomplished; against many destruc- 

 tive diseases highly effective chemicals of prevention have been found; 

 sprays for fruit and vegetable crops, simple and inexpensive chemical dust 

 treatments for ridding seeds of the germs of disease, tear gas for sterilizing 

 soil, benzol vapor for protecting tobacco seedhngs from mildew, fermenta- 

 tion acids for sterilizing tomato seeds, and a host of others. Better, because 

 they are simpler, are the measures of disease control which depend only 

 upon slight changes in the ways of cultivating plants; changing the date 

 of planting to favor the plant and inhibit its parasites, rotation of crops 

 to starve the parasites out of the soil, farm sanitation to destroy the breed- 

 ing and hiding places of plant pests, to mention only a few of these. Best of 

 all are the scores of new varieties of plants, joint contribution of the plant 

 breeder and the plant pathologist, varieties that are innately resistant to the 

 attack of parasites and at the same time desirable commercial types. There 



