296 Recognition in America 



In South Carolina also took place his discovery that cowpea is 

 affected by the same fusarium as that which causes watermelon 

 " wilt." There originated his belief that the fungus on melon, 

 cotton, and cowpea is " one thing " and there he discovered the 

 already mentioned ^° perithecial form which he saw " on agar, 

 infected with the mycelium from a single ascospore." ^^ Smith 

 also studied there " southern tomato blight," " potato rot," and 

 " Rolfs' sclerotium disease." Selection experiments for disease 

 resistance were not definitely in his mind at this time. But he 

 closely examined cotton seed-selection as practiced by the planters 

 there and wrote the following memorandum on July 24, 1895: 



Great care used in selecting seed. One or two plants are picked out as 

 models, seed saved, and planted next year by itself and third year there is 

 enough to plant many acres. This selection is carried on year after year, 

 and when it is not done cotton is said to deteriorate. Cotton does not 

 follow cotton here, but the fields are allowed to rest a year or are planted 

 to other crops. 



When he returned to Washington, he planned to " translate 

 and publish Von Tavel's Pilze," ^- something which he never did, 

 and to " write a book on Bacterial diseases of Plants." ^^ Educa- 

 tion in agricultural science was giving more attention to instruction 

 on diseases of plants. A " work on Plant Diseases," with Smith 

 as one of the authors, was evidently announced as in preparation. 

 Professor Kellerman on March 4, 1897, inquired of Smith whether 

 this would be a text book. At present he was giving lectures to 

 his students in the department of botany at the Ohio State Uni- 

 versity. By 1897 the University of Illinois and Purdue University 

 gave courses '^^ in bacteriology. As early as 1893, as part of a 

 special and winter course in agriculture at the University of Illi- 

 nois, George P. Clinton had presented a course in " Diseases of 



'"' See Chapter VI, p. 262 of this book. 



" Letters, Smith to Galloway, September 2, 8, 1895. An earlier letter, August 7, 

 told of planned cross-inoculation experiments, his discovery of the parasite on cow- 

 pea, and other points. Smith prepared elaborate memoranda, and also wrote letters 

 to Woods concerning some of his findings. 



^- See Smith's review of F. von Tavel, Vergleichende Morphologie der Pilze, 

 Journal of Mycology 7(4): 389-396, Aug. 15, 1894. Smith must have started this 

 translation but in July 1896, Spalding, who had used the book in an advanced class, 

 somewhat discouraged its completion since the subject was vast and the book " a 

 work of moderate dimensions." 



^* Quotations from a "Memorandum of things to do," September 12, 1895, pre- 

 pared by Smith. Points 1 and 2. 



"■^ Botanical Gazette 23: 73, Jan.-June 1897. 



