Placed on a Nation-widi- Basis 211 



in the college of arts and sciences at Cornell, compiled for 

 Scietice'- a review of station botanical work during 1892 similar 

 to that which Halsted had assembled for the Botatikal Gazette.''^ 

 the preceding year. Atkinson found "one of the most unique 

 features of the botanist's work at the experiment stations is the 

 study and treatment of plant diseases caused by fungi and 

 bacteria." He, while in the south, almost alone, had placed on an 

 enduring basis the study of plant diseases according to crops. He 

 may have patterned his work after policies of the Division of 

 Vegetable Pathology. But the plan of his work influenced other 

 workers at experin;icnt stations in the south. On January 6, 1891, 

 Miss Southworth published in the jouruiil of Alyco/opy'* her 

 study of " Anthracnose of Cotton," and described the new species, 

 CGlletolrichiiim gossypii. After her work was completed but 

 before it was published, Atkinson read a paper on the same subject 

 before the American Association of Agricultural College and Ex- 

 periment Stations. During these early years of the science, more 

 than one study of the same malady was made by different workers. 

 Occasionally, the same disease was studied from different aspects. 

 Miss Southworth "cited Professor Atkinson's authority in regard 

 to the parts of the host plant attacked." Their work,, however, 

 was independent. 



Atkinson, in his 1892 article on " Botany at the Experiment 

 Stations," commended the use of artificial cultures in studying the 

 life histories of parasitic fungi. " No other feature of botanical 

 work at the experiment stations, in my judgment," he wrote, "is 

 doing so much to lay the permanent foundations for a rational 

 economy in the treatment of plant diseases " as this. He listed 

 Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, the New York stations at 

 Geneva and Cornell University, North Carolina, and North 

 Dakota, as stations where the cultural apparatus was more or 

 less complete. 



At these stations, most of the workers, as Atkinson himself, had 

 been students of Farlow or had studied under someone who had 

 learned culture practice from him. On the point of station equip- 

 ment, not every botanist agreed with Atkinson. As late as 1894, 



"Botany at the experiment stations, Science 20(514): 328-330, Dec. 9, 1892. 

 ■'■''What the station botanists are doing, Botanical Gazette 16: 288, 1891. 

 '♦6(3): 100-105, Jan. 6, 1891. 



