EXrERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 267 



State. The tabulated results of this survey have been forwarded to the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry at Washington. Some of the interesting ob- 

 servations and neAv diseases of the State are briefly mentioned in a sup- 

 plementary article in this report. 



Other Work icith the Hatch Fund. Superintendence of the cucumber 

 project in Avhich the department is co-operatiug with the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture was carried out by means of the Hatch fund. The 

 report of progress of this work is given at another place. 



Many minor prol)lems are handled under the Hatch fund. The ac- 

 cumulation of photograjihs to illustrate the signs of the various plant 

 diseases of economic hosts is tinanced from this fund. At present the 

 number of usuable negatives on plant diseases is about 500. 



(3) STATE FUNDS. 



Bean Work. The extensive investigation of bean diseases and their 

 control Avhich was begun in 1913 at the appointment of J. H. Muncie has 

 now reached a stage where definite lines of advance can be seen. The 

 history of the project may be briefly reviewed. The bean crop of Mich- 

 igan has long been a staple, leading crop in the State. In many sections 

 it is the money crop. Year after year the average "pick" per bushel 

 kept increasing and with seasons of abundant rainfall, the crop was un- 

 profitable. The cause of this situation was clearly seen by Dr. Beal and 

 his associates who had collected the causal organism as long ago as 1889. 

 In face of repeated warning no work was done on the diseases and no 

 explanations of the cause of trouble given publicity. In 1911 the evi- 

 dence of great loss to the beau industry was apparent, but upon making a 

 survey of the situation by visiting elevators and growers, it was plain to 

 see that few if any knew the cause of "cull" beans. No control meas- 

 ures were consistently folloAved by the farmers. The consensus of opin- 

 ion was that spotted, blighted beans were caused by the weather. It was 

 not uncommon in 1911 and 1912 for elevator men to send in samples and 

 upon receiving reply to doubt the correctness of the diagnosis and ap- 

 peal to the U. S. Department of Agriculture for confirmation. When 

 some of the leaders among the elevator men became impressed with 

 the nature of the trouble they asked for help in the solution of the prob- 

 lem. The appointment of a special investigator was the outcome of the 

 situation. 



It was seen that the disease was introduced each year with the seed 

 and accordingly attention was focused upon seed treatments. In 1911, 

 I had attempted disinfection by chemicals and by hot water, and had 

 also attempted specific-gravity separations of healthy and diseased beans 

 in order to clean the seed stock. This work had yielded promising re- 

 sults. Spraying was tried and was found of no value. 



With the appointment of a special investigator, experiments on seed 

 treatments were continued on a large scale. In spite of more than two 

 years of effort we are not able to report any seed treatment which is 

 worthy of recommendalion. In such diseases as oat snnit simple sur- 

 face disinfection gives efficient results due to the superficial nature of 

 the contamination. In the case of bean anthracnose and bean blight, 

 the contamination has either ]>enetrated deep into the cotyledons or 

 else is beneath the skin and between the cotyledons. It is out of the 



