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that it is damaging the cotton crop to the extent of 35% in 

 certain parts of the State, and is on the increase and spread- 

 ing. Mr. A. W. Bryant writes me that he has counted as 

 many as nineteen diseased bolls on one stalk, and there 

 were no doubt many more that were not diseased enough to 

 appear on the exterior. 



As regards the remedies and precautions to be taken in 

 fighting this disease, it will be readily understood from the 

 nature of the disease as above described, that the remedy 

 must be a preventive one ; and that we can not resort to any 

 thing like spraying the plants with a fungicide or other 

 chemicals, since we would kill the plants before the seat of 

 the disease could be reached. We can then do nothing to- 

 wards curing a boll once diseased, but we may help the 

 cotton plant as a whole, and lessen the chances of having 

 other bolls diseased, if we will remove the diseased bolls. 

 But since the bacteria in the diseased tissues are not readily 

 killed by such natural means as cold of winter or heat of 

 summer, drying or becoming wet, nor by the decaying of 

 the tissues in which they are found, but are simply eliber- 

 ated and thus allowed to work through the soil to infest 

 other cotton plants, we must, therefore, carefully preserve 

 the diseased bolls and burn them, and not allow one to 

 fall to the ground and remain there. If the diseased bolls 

 are not picked and burned, but are simply allowed to remain 

 on the cotton plant, they will sooner or later fall to the 

 ground, and thus distribute millions of new bacteria in the 

 soil, and rapidly increase the chances of having diseased 

 bolls next season. It will not answer to leave the diseased 

 bolls on the stalk after the cotton is picked, since the rain 

 will wash the decayed and affected interior of the bolls 

 out, and distribute it upon the soil. The diseased cotton- 

 bolls should all be picked off and burned just as soon as 

 discovered, or at least during the first picking of the lint, 

 and ever afterwards as discovered. 



It is a simple matter to carry a second bag in connection 

 with the one used in picking lint, and to place in the second 

 bag all diseased bolls as discovered, and to put them into 

 small heaps and burn them. By this means the rot disease 



