138 Pathologist U. S. Department of Agriculture 



pages on " Fungous Diseases of Plants," in which he outlined 

 several maladies and " the leading characters of some of the chief 

 groups or more destructive species of fungi." Remedies for some 

 were described. His footnote citations indicate that he profited 

 considerably from reports of studies made by Farlow, Halsted, 

 Trelease, Peck, Henry, William Saunders of the Department, and 

 other students of diseases of cultivated plants. He did some 

 experimental work. For instance, in his study of the downy mil- 

 dew fungus, he showed in 1886 that the most favorable tempera- 

 tures for the germination of its spores were between 25° and 35° 

 centigrade. At lower temperatures the germination was slov/er 

 and at 0° C. the vitality of the conidia was not destroyed. ^^ 



Erwin Smith had not been studying fungi many years; in fact, 

 on April 19, 1888, he wrote Farlow, 



My attention has not been given to Fungi until within the last few- 

 years, and I have never published anything of any consequence. The year 

 of our great potato rot, at the request of the Bureau of Crop Statistics, I 

 prepared a brief account for his use. I have sent you a copy. This was 

 reprinted in the Trans[actions] of the Wisconsin Exp[eriment] Station 

 for 1885 or 1886, and somewhere in Canada. To Mr. Scribner's Report 

 on Fungous Diseases of the Grape Vine I contributed the Index and 

 Appendix [A]. I also translated Appendices C and D.^- ... To the De- 

 partment Annual for 1886, I contributed ostensibly two maps and a short 

 account ^^ of Phytophthora accompanied by a plate. To the Michigan 

 Farmer in 1885, I now remember that I also contributed some statistics of 

 the potato rot of that year, but have no copies left. For a special Depart- 

 ment Report ^* not yet published, I went over this ground much more 



'■'' Rep't of the Covim' er of Agric. for 1885: 76-88. 



^^Phytopathology 9 (9): 391, Sept. 1919. 



^'U. S. Dep't Agric, Bot. Div., Bull. 2: 1-136, 1886. 



Appendix A, 45-53, Synopsis of replies to a circular relative to grape mildews 



and grape rot in the United States. 

 Appendix B, 54-63, Remarks on grape rot and grape mildew. 

 Appendix C, 65-118, Prevention of mildew — results of experiments with 



various fungicides in French and Italian vineyards in 1885. 

 Appendix D, 119-121, Results of the Congress on Parasitic Diseases of the 

 Vine held at Florence, Italy, October, 1886. 

 ^='The Potato-rot. Phytophthora infestans, De By. (Plate VII), Rep't of the 

 Comm'er of Agric. for 1886: 121-124. Maps showed the distribution of Perono- 

 spora viticola and black rot of the grape. See p. 122 concerning Smith's work on 

 tlie potato-rot report and other " valuable assistance " to Scribner on his annual 

 report of that year. 



^* See, Special reports on peach blight and potato rot. Sect. Veg. Path., U. S. 

 Dep't Agric, 1889. 



