36 



England.' Melon i^lants wilted readily in this soil. The tomatoes 

 wei'e developed in it from seedlings, and, to the nnmber of more than 

 100, grew in the soil healthfully for several months (as long as the 

 experiment continued) side by side with many watermelons, all of 

 which contracted the disease and wilted. 



Potatoes grown in soil full of the melon fungus also remained Iree 

 fiom disease. 



!No inoculation experiments either on melons or cotton have been 

 made with mycelium derived from the ascospores of the cotton or the 

 watermelon fungus. 



A detailed account of all of these experiments will not be given, but 

 to show their extent and to re-enforce the above rather brief statement 

 of the main results the following sample experiments are given : 



(1) On September 5, 1804, 14 pots of good earth were planted with 

 56 cotton seeds and the soil of each one was infected with a pure culture 

 of the melon fungus. During the fall and early winter the soil in these 

 pots was reinfected three or four times with pure cultures of the melon 

 fungus, but none of the cotton plants contracted the disease. On May 

 14, 1895, 4C cotton plants remained, and were healthy but for the attacks 

 of red spiders. On this date watermelon seeds of three varieties were 

 planted in each of the pots to see if the melon fungus was present in 

 the soil. The seeds germinated well, and on May 25 each pot con- 

 tained from two or three to six healthy melons. On June 7 the first 

 case of melon wilt appeared — i. e., the cotyledons of a plant drooped 

 in a suspicious way, and the conidia-bearing mycelium of the fungus 

 was found in the vessels of the tap root. On June 8 the second case 

 appeared. This plant was pulled and examined two days later, when 

 the fungus was found plugging many of the vessels of the tap root. 

 From this date cases became frequent. By July 9 the melon wilt had 

 appeared in 10 of these pots. The cotton plants in these pots were still 

 free from wilt and were making an increased growth, owing to the fact 

 that the red spiders had been destroyed early in June by means of 

 resin wash. 



(2) On December 3, 1895, 28 pots of good earth were planted to sea- 

 island cotton and an equal number to cowpeas. Each pot received 7 

 seeds. On December 5, before any of the i^lants were up, one-half the 

 pots of each lot were copiously inoculated with pure cultures of the melon 

 fungus, the whole of tubes 3, 4, 6, and 7, October 17 (rice cultures), being 

 used for this purpose. The fungus was buried about 1 centimeter deep 

 in the center of each pot. On December 11, as the plants were coming 

 up, the other 14 pots of each series were also inoculated with the melon 

 fungus. The pots of cowpeas received rice cultures 4, 5, and 8, Octo- 

 ber 8. The pots of cotton received rice culture 6, October 8, and 1, 

 October 28. The fungus was buried in the soil the same way as before. 



'Massee: The "sleepy disease" of tomatoes. — The Gardeners' Chronicle, Series 

 III, Vol. XVII, 1895, ]}. 707. 



