Of thh Science of Plant Bacteriology 303 



that iiidHuscs sometimes transmit black rot of cabbage.'' Smith's 

 proof of water-pore infections in cabbage black rot, stomatal 

 infections in half a dozen diseases, and insect transmission of 

 cucurbit wilt, cabbage black rot, and potato brown rot, were 

 among the most noteworthy of his early contributions to plant 

 bacteriology. '■■ That his investigations were nation-wide in scope 

 was illustrated by his study of Biicilliis campestris. 



April 1 4, Swingle sent a box of green cabbage worms. Smith 

 " set them to feeding on cabbage leaves and stems browned by 

 this germ," and began experiments to obtain " Infections by means 

 of larvae of Plnsia hrassicae." 



During the summer Michigan Agricultural College forwarded 

 a request from Saginaw, Michigan, to investigate " on the ground " 

 a cabbage disease and other ills of cultivated crops. Wheeler was 

 appointed to make the study and invited Smith to accompany him. 

 Already Smith had published in the Centralhlatt, and Pammcl had 

 commended him for his " very excellent account so far as it ex- 

 tends " of the brown rot of cruciferous plants. Pammel, in a 

 letter of August 14, had told him he was anxious to see his 

 further studies. 



Smith, en route to join Wheeler, attended the meeting an 

 Detroit of Section G of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science at which Farlow was elected president and Smith 

 secretary of the Section. There, Smith met, and had an interesting 

 chat with. Dr. H. Marshall Ward, who spoke at the meeting and 

 at the Toronto meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. While on this journey Smith frequently wrote 

 to Woods in whose care at Washington he had left some valuable 

 cultures. From one of these cultures it was found, as expected, 

 that a bacillus would grow in hydrogen, and also in carbon 

 dioxide, a result not anticipated. Presumably the organism was 

 Bacillus tracheiphilus. On August 19, 1897, from the Bancroft 

 House at Saginaw, Smith acquainted Woods with the results of 

 his further study of the cabbage disease: 



Am up here looking at sick cabbage fields. Mr. Chas. F. Wheeler of 

 Michigan Agric[ultural] College is with me. We saw 200 acres of 



'* Erwin F. Smith, A conspectus of bacterial diseases of plants, Annals Missouri 

 Botanical Garden 2: 377-401, at p. 390, Feb. -Apr. 1915. 

 "* Synopsis of researches, op. cit., 23. 



