274 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



MISCELLANEOUS DISEASES. 



The White Pine Blister nist which is now known from all the states 

 surronnding Miehigan has not yet been Jouud here. The fact that large 

 plantings of white pine have been made in the State, many of which 

 were with imported seedlings, makes the jiresence of the disease in the 

 State extrenu'l.v probable. An accnrate snrvey has not as yet been made, 

 bnt the situation warrants such work. A similar blister rust of West- 

 ern Pine was reported from Grand Kapids, and on investigation the dis- 

 ease was traced to seedlings obtained from the Roscommon nursery. This 

 disease is probably not serious, due either to the scarcity or lack of com- 

 mercial value of the hosts. 



Marssouina sp. was found defoliating Euonymous in the Botanical Gar- 

 den. The disease has persisted a number of years but is restricted to the 

 one species although the diseased tree is surrounded by other species of 

 the genus. 



A complete killing of the tops of Peony by Cladosporiuni paeoniac was 

 seen at Adrian last year. Botrytis peoniac caused the death of many 

 shoots in another plantation of peony in the spring of 1916. 



The Septoria leaf spot of Phlox caused failure of many beds of Phlox 

 last vear. 



Professor E. A. Bessey: 



Dear Sir — I have the honor to submit the following report for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1916 : 



Approximately three-fifths of my time has been devoted to Experi- 

 ment Station work which has been carried on under the Adams fund. 

 The appropriation for the past year was |500. This sum has been ex- 

 pended for glassware, chemicals, labor, — both common and technical, — 

 and special apparatus, necessaiy for the working out of the Adams 

 fund problems, a statement of which is as follows: "The absorption 

 of solutes, with special reference to balanced solutions." 



Attention has been directed during the i)ast year to a study of the 

 possibility of working out, through the aid of our former studies on the 

 laws governing absorption of water and mineral nutrients, a rational 

 system of soil fertilization on the basis of balanced solutions. 



Work in the laboratory and greenhouse has shov^n : First, that, in 

 the case of water cultures, a three-salt solution is eminently satisfac- 

 tory for the growth of Avheat and peas for at least the first five weeks. 

 These salts are KH.PO,, CaCNO.),, and MgSO^. They contain all the 

 essential elements for growth except iron which is added in trace to 

 the solutions. This three-salt solution gives better results than any 

 of the many solutions using four or five different salts, and heretofore 

 considered as suitable for nutrient solutions. 



Second, it has been shown that certain proportions of the three salts 

 give better conditions for growth than other proportions. In a series 

 of 36 cultures in which the total concentration remained the same 

 throughout, but the partial concentration of the three salts was divided 

 into ten equal parts, it was found that the 5-3-2 proportion was best 

 (SKH.PO^— 3Ca(N03)2— 2MgS0J. The second best proportion was 3- 



