296 Bulletin 255. 



grown from seed purchased in the city market gave a diseased crop. 

 The two gardens in which these crops of beans were grown were side 

 by side, separated only by a woven wire fence, the ends of the rows of 

 the beans in the two gardens being not more than 20 feet apart. During 

 the winter of 1905-06, the seed saved from this crop w^as almost entirely 

 destroyed by weevils, so that for the planting of 1906 there was only a 

 very small quantity of seed, sufficient to plant only a part of a row across 

 the garden. Seed of the same variety, with which to complete the 

 planting, was purchased in the city market, one long row being completed 

 across the garden. Shortly after the beans were up the disease became 

 quite virulent in the plants grown from the purchased seed, while none 

 was to be found in that grown from selected seed of the previous season. 

 All of the plants were thoroughly sprayed once, but the disease had 

 at that time made such progress that it was not controlled, and a gradual 

 spreading of the disease was observed in the row on adjoining plants 

 from clean seed, so that by the time the crop was ready to harvest, 

 only a few of the plants from the clean seed showed pods entirely free 

 from anthracnose. This clearly indicated that the absence of the 

 disease the two preceding years had not been due to varietal resistance. 

 It could be explained only on the basis that there had been no disease 

 in the seed. It further indicated that the disease was not readily carried 

 from one garden to another, else the crop of 1905 should certainly have 

 been diseased. During the winter of 1905-06 a small amount of this 

 seed was sent to a lady near Ithaca, who had been unable to grow Black 

 Wax beans for a number of years, that were free from the pod-spot. 

 She reported a perfectly clean crop in 1906 and saved seed for the fol- 

 lowing season. At the end of the season, 1907, she again reported a 

 crop entirely free from the spot. It should be pointed out here, that 

 the clean crops of 1906 came in a year when the bean anthracnose 

 was particularly destructive. During the season of 1907, the writer 

 did not plant anj^ seed from the crop of 1906, as what little he succeeded 

 in saving from the uninfected plants, was totally destroyed by weevils 

 during the winter. Fortunately the lady to whom he sent the seed in 

 1905, sent hiin during the winter of 1907 a small quantity of this seed, 

 which is presumably free from the anthracnose. This will be planted 

 in 1908, and the writer has every reason to believe that it will give a 

 clean crop. 



During the winter of 1906-07, communication was received from 

 a gentleman, in the western part of the United States, who grows beans 

 to a limited extent on irrigated lands. The gentleman declared that 

 he was able to plant diseased seed, received from any of the North East- 



