Fungous Disi-ases of Plants, Phach Yhllows 177 



airl, rot, and rosette — but diseases of (;rapc and plum were also 

 considered. Peach rosette, a disease similar to, yet distinguishable 

 from, yellows, was of more than usual interest. 



In June 1889 Smith took his doctoral examination at the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan on his thesis subject, the peach yellows. Dr. 

 Spalding invited a pre-mcdical student, Lewis Ralph Jones, to 

 attend the examination and so inspired was he by " the significance 

 of and opportunity for research in the field of plant pathology " "" 

 that, after further conferences with Spalding, Jones decided to 

 make plant pathology his life work. Some of his undergraduate 

 years had been spent at Ripon College in Wisconsin, his native 

 state, but an interest in biological sciences had caused him to 

 transfer to Michigan. Smith's examination resulted, therefore, not 

 only in his receiving the degree of Doctor of Science but also in 

 attracting to the science Jones, another future leader. 



Smith enjoyed more than one honor this year. The alumni of 

 Ionia High School invited him to present their annual address, a 

 distinction which, when he accepted it, was planned as the " one 

 great event" of the Commencement exercises. 



While in Michigan, he may have consulted with F. G. Novy. 

 After securing a degree of Master of Science from the University 

 of Michigan," Novy had gone to Chicago to teach. August 16, 

 1887, while still there and just before he went abroad with Dr. 

 Vaughan to study with Koch and others, he informed Smith: " I 

 have resigned my western professorship and accepted, instead, a 

 position as instructor in Hygiene and physiological chemistry in 

 my own Alma Mater." Two years later he wrote again: 



A copy of your report on Peach Yellows has been recently received. I 

 congratulate you, as a friend and a classmate, upon this highly creditable 

 production and feel confident that no matter how obscure the cause of 

 the disease m,ay be at present, you are the most competent person to carry 

 out the investigation to its fullest extent. I am surprised to see that so 

 little work has been done in regard to the possibility of the bacterial origin 

 of the Yellows. If I am not mistaken you, yourself, have not approached 

 that side of the question. 



Mr. [Newton B.] Pierce has been recently appointed by the Department 

 [of Agriculture] to study the Vine disease of California. [He] has taken 

 a course in bacteriology in our laboratory and is enthusiastic on applying 

 that study in the investigation of vegetable diseases. 



•°G. W. Keitt and F. V. Rand, Lewis Ralph Jones, Phytopathology 36 (1): 1-17, 

 at p. 2, 1946. 



