Recognition of Plant Bacti-rioi.ogv in Europe 367 



The introduction and brccdint; of discasc-rcsistant plants were 

 always encouraged and aided by him. This branch of research, 

 however, was never his specialty. His was the pioneer laboratory 

 of the Department in economic plant pathology, and when it was 

 created the imperative need was for standardized methods of inves- 

 tigation and thorough studies of all the bacterially caused diseases 

 of plants. During his lifetime, approximately one-half of the 

 known bacterial plant maladies would be discovered and worked 

 out in his laboratory. Extensive additional investigations, further- 

 more, would be made of a large percentage of the other one-half 

 of those diseases tlren recognized as serious. Some idea of how 

 widely Smith covered the held of bacterial diseases among agri- 

 cultural crops may be gathered from the following list, prepared 

 in 1926,'' each of which was " studied in detail, the causal or- 

 ganism determined and in many cases means of prevention and 

 control established: 



1. Truck crops: tomato, potato, tobacco wilt diseases; lettuce leaf and 

 stem rots and spots; bean leaf, stem, pod and seed diseases; cucumber, 

 melon, pumpkin and squash leaf and wilt diseases; sugar beet leaf spot; 

 cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, mustard, kohlrabi rots and leaf spots; cotton 

 boll rot, black arm and leaf spot. 



2. Cereal and forage crops: sugar-cane, sorghum and broom corn dis- 

 eases; sweet corn wilt; millet leaf spot; wheat, oats, barley and western 

 wheat grass diseases of leaf, stem and kernel ; Kudzu, soy-bean leaf spots ; 

 alfalfa and clover leaf and stem spots and root rots. 



3. Fru/f diseases: crowngall infecting the majority of large and small 

 fruits, vegetables and ornamentals; coconut bud rot; stone-fruit leaf and 

 fruit spot; mulberry leaf spot. 



4. Miscellaneous: florists' troubles, gladiolus bulb rots; nasturtium wilt; 

 calla soft rot; iris soft rot; hyacinth and other lily rots; leaf spots of nas- 

 turtium, gladiolus, delphinium, canna, geranium, martynia; lilac blight; 

 castor bean wilt. 



5. Plan( tumors other than crowngall: olive (bacterial), apple (?), ash 

 (bacterial), sugar beet (bacterial), citrus (fungus), sapodillo (fungus). 



6. Non-bacterial plant diseases: garlic rot, oat blast, Smyrna fig rot (in 

 California), sweet pea fasciation, banana wilt, cotton, cowpea, watermelon 

 and tomato wilts, geranium stem rot, snapdragon wilt, dry rot of potato. 



From this laboratory, altogether about 180 publications would 



"' Found among Dr. Smith's paper. Prepared by request of A. F. Woods as to 

 Scientific work in the Department and addressed to Dr. W. A. Taylor, chief of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industr)'. Transmitted to heads of offices, memorandum 249, 

 October 1926. 



