SOME IMPORTANT DISEASES OF FIELD 

 CROPS IN NORTH CAROLINA 



By H. R. Fulton, Plant Pathologist, and J. R. Winston, Assistant in Plant 

 Pathology, North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. 



The object of this Bulletin is to give crop growers in a concise form 

 the main facts about certain field crop diseases that are of importance in 

 North Carolina. Some of these have not yet become thoroughly estab- 

 lished within our territory, nevertheless their destructiveness and the 

 difficulty of coping with them make a warning appropriate. It is of 

 first importance to prevent their introduction into new territory and to 

 restrict their spread in localities where they have appeared. _ It has 

 been impossible to discuss all the diseases of field crops. It is hoped 

 that the descriptions will insure the correct identification of those 

 included here. If there is any question on this score, or if other dis- 

 eases attract attention, the Division of Plant Pathology, Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, will be glad to render any aid possible. 



In preparing this account the experience of other workers has been 

 freely drawn upon, and it is regretted that the many sources of valuable 

 information can not be acknowledged specifically. One is at once 

 struck with the fact that the most serious group of diseases in this 

 State is that of the soil diseases— those that persist in the soil for years, 

 entering the plants mainly through their roots. Very valuable work 

 upon certain diseases of this class has been done by Dr. Erwin F. 

 Smith, Mr. W. A. Orton, and Dr. Ernst A. Bessey, of the United 

 States Bureau of Plant Industry. Mention should also be made of the 

 very successful work on cotton anthracnose by Professor H. W. Barre, 

 of the South Carolina Experiment Station. 



The distribution in this State of the diseases here discussed is by no 

 means fully known. The records at hand indicate merely their general 

 range. 



CLOVER AND ALFALFA STEM EOT. 



Distribution in North Carolina. — The disease has been reported from 

 Alamance, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Eowan, 

 and Wake counties. 



Plants Affected. — Crimson clover, red clover, alsike clover, alfalfa. 



This disease is sometimes called sclerotiniose and wilt. 



Symptoms. — Individual plants die here and there over the field. If 

 the stems are succulent they collapse in a dry mass on the ground; if 

 more woody, they stand erect and the dying plants are more conspicu- 

 ous. The stems are decayed, usually near, but frequently just below, 

 the surface of the ground. On the dead parts there will be found the 

 white felt-like growth of the fungus and intermingled some irregularly 

 shaped, firm, black masses that vary from the size of a clover seed to 



