Department of Plant Pathology. 43 



ment is in the nature of extension work; in fact, most of it may be 

 properly considered as coming- under this head, as it consists in 

 answering- inquiries regarding the diseases of crops. The increase 

 in this kind of correspondence has been gratifying, as the writer feels 

 that this is evidence that the people of the State are becoming ac- 

 (|uainted with the department and have confidence in the work that it 

 is doing. The writer has made it a point always to answer questions 

 of this sort with care and dispatch, although, owing to the lack of 

 assistance, important matters have frequently been much delayed. 

 In connection with this work, there is much need of a laboratory as- 

 sistant who can give practically all of his time to the work of de- 

 termining diseases sent in, and to getting the information necessary 

 for intelligent answers. The correspondence during the past summer 

 approximated during some months, as much as 200 letters per week. 



Much of the increased correspondence and interest in the work, 

 the writer thinks, is due largely to the exhibits that have been made 

 for the past three years at the State and county fairs. During the 

 past year, plant-disease exhibits were made at the State Fair and 

 four county fairs, namely the Union Fair at Trumansburg, the Chau- 

 tauqua Fair at Fredonia, the Genesee Fair at Batavia, the Steuben 

 Fair at Bath. The work that the department has been able to do at 

 these fairs has been so gratifying that it has established it as a fixed 

 practice in the extension work, and has this year begun to put the 

 exhibit in permanent form, having learned during the past three 

 years about what will best accomplish the purpose and in what con- 

 dition it can best be transported. 



The value of this extension work seems to be mainly along the 

 following lines: (i) That it puts the department in touch with a 

 much larger number of people of the State than it could otherwise 

 hope to meet by individual traveling or to become acquainted with 

 through correspondence. (2) By bringing to the people of any sec- 

 tion concrete and living examples of the diseases with which the}^ 

 in particular are troubled, the department is enabled to enlist their 

 attention and interest more efificiently. To see on the table before 

 him as he passes before the exhibit, scabby pears, identical in ap- 

 pearance with what he has at home, or alfalfa entwined with the so- 

 much-dreaded dodder which he has seen in his neighbor's field, the 

 grower cannot help but stop to examine and inquire. It has been 

 made a practice at the fairs this year to pass out to any interested 

 person a card bearing the names of the staflf of the department and 

 indicating the particular line to which each man is devoting his time. 



