THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 418 



appeared in the tubers in the form of small sclerotia, the winter form of 

 this disease. In Germany, he said, in preparing peat and peat land, the 

 farmers began by growing oats, mustard and buckwheat. These crops 

 Avere better titted for the peaty conditions and changed the rough soil 

 into a cultivated one. 



Acid soils were made alkaline by adding lime. After three or four 

 years the painstaking were rewarded by a good potato crop, that rarely 

 suifered from Rhizoctonia. 



These methods might, or might not, be adapted to the Delta condi- 

 tions, and one duty of the station should be to investigate thoroughly 

 the conditions which would change rough, uncultivated land into a 

 good agricultural soil. The station should also be able, as time went 

 on, to devise methods for fighting Fusarium and other diseases. 



It was further stated by Dr. Appel that the question of putting lime 

 in a soil was a prominent one in Germany. Lime changes soil from acid 

 to alkaline. If lime were put into soils we might have trouble with 

 potato scab, which affected soils rich in this chemical. The grower must 

 decide whether he wished to grow potatoes or other vegetables. Some 

 vegetables would grow better in an acid soil than in an alkaline one. 



Conditions Affecting the Delta System of Agriculture. 



Prof. William Stewart, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, gave an interesting summary of 

 conditions affecting the Delta system of agriculture. He stated that 

 there had been at no time more widespread interest in improved methods 

 of potato culture than today. The Delta lands afforded peculiar agri- 

 cultural possibilities, and their present condition with respect to potato 

 growing indicated that these had not been realized. The rational system 

 of agriculture had not been practised in this region. The endeavor had 

 been to get as much money out of the land as possible. This had 

 resulted, not so much in the impoverishing of the soil, as in filling the 

 land with disease. 



The system of tenantry was all wrong. The annual tenant could have 

 no other interest than that of getting all he possibly could out of the 

 land. As the potato was the most profitable he grew potatoes. If a 

 definite system of crop rotation were practised, whether three, four or 

 five years — which may be determined — and crops were grown in this 

 rotation which were not affected by these diseases, then conditions 

 would be vastly better. With this system of crop rotation a more per- 

 manent tenantry must come. 



In regard to harvesting the crop, the speaker stated that there would 

 be a more economical use of labor if the digger were to confine his atten- 

 tion to digging alone, someone else doing the picking up. If the tubers 

 were exposed to sun and air for an hour or two after digging, instead 

 of being gathered as soon as dug, there would be much less danger of 

 fungus attack by the "leak" disease. 



The removal of cull potatoes from the land was also important, 

 inasmuch as the perpetuation of the various insect and fungoid diseases 

 was largely made possible through leaving the culls upon the land. This 

 would entail considerable expense, and if these culls could be converted 

 into a dried stock food — with which the Bureau of Chemistry and the 



