EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 181 



working out methods of control and prevention. He has also been carrying 

 on further investigations with the coniothyrium disease of cherries which 

 caused serious damage in certain localities in Michigan in 1919, and which 

 has proved quite destructive in many parts of the State this year, although 

 practically absent in 1920. He has continued the work on Bean Mosaic and 

 its manner of transmission from plant to plant, and has obtained some very 

 interesting results. 



Mr. Kotila has been devoting practically all of his time to the diseases of 

 potatoes, particularly those that are of importance in the Upper Peninsula. 

 For this purpose he spent all of last summer, and has been since early in May 

 this year at the Upper Peninsula Experiment Station at Chatham. The main 

 diseases being studied by him are Black Leg, Mosaic, and Streak. In 

 addition he is carrying on for Dr. Coons, experiments on control of potato scab. 

 Considerable attention has been given by him also to the leaf burn of potatoes, 

 of which the inducing cause is an insect, the potato leaf hopper. 



In addition to the foregoing lines of work, minor investigations and experi- 

 ments have been made in connection with the smuts of grains and a good 

 many other diseases of various crops. In connection with all this work co- 

 operation has been had with the Plant Disease Survey of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington. 



The physiological investigations have consisted of the following hnes of 

 work : 



Dr. Hibbard, employing Mr. S. Gershberg as an assistant, has continued 

 the investigations with balanced nutrient solutions, with Marquis wheat as 

 the test plant, while in the field tests with various proportions of fertilizer 

 salts have been made using oats to determine to what extent, if any, such 

 tests will bear out the results obtained from culture solutions. 



Dr. Hibbard and Mr. Young have been cooperating with the Horticultural 

 department in the fertilizer experiments in an apple orchard near Grand 

 Rapids. This neglected orchard is being pruned and sprayed in the regular 

 way and has been divided into portions which are given different fertilizer 

 treatments. This department is cooperating in the study of the results 

 by determining the relative rates of growth with the different fertilizer treat- 

 ments, the assimilation and distribution of nitrogenous compounds, the man- 

 ufacture and storage of starch, etc. In order to obtain results from which 

 conclusions can be drawn with safety, this work must be carried on for several 

 years more. 



Mr. Young has continued his research problem on the effect upon the 

 physiological functions of plants of deficiencies in individual nutrients. The 

 plant on which experiments have been made this past year has been the 

 sugar beet. The preliminary experiments have revealed some very remark- 

 able facts. The work is being continued this summer in the field. It will 

 naturally be many years before the results are complete enough to draw gen- 

 eral conclusions. 



Aside from consulting with members of the Botanical section upon their 

 problems, I have had but little opportunity to undertake any serious investiga- 

 tions. I began, however, this spring, some work upon the Orange Rust of 

 raspberries and blackberries, which it will take a year or so more to bring to a 

 satisfactory completion. 



Respectfully , 



E. A. BESSEY, 



Botanist. 

 East Lansing, Michigan, June 30, 1921. 



