378 Chief of a Laboratory of Plant Pathology 



College, Annapolis, and at Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia, 

 he had specialized in botany and plant physiology, studying in 

 1897 at the University of Leipzig. In April, 1898, while filling 

 a temporary position as instructor of botany at Barnard College, 

 Columbia University, he inquired of Smith whether he knew of 

 a vacancy " in teaching, experiment station, or U. S. Dep't of 

 Agriculture." 



Townsend accepted the offer from Maryland Agricultural 

 College. But he left there a few years later to take a position 

 with the Department of Agriculture to investigate sugar beet dis- 

 eases. J. B. S. Norton became professor of botany and vegetable 

 pathology at College Park, and state pathologist of Maryland. 

 " If I take up the study of sugar beet diseases," wrote Townsend 

 to Smith on March 9, 1901, " it will probably be necessary to do 

 considerable in the way of planning experiments before July 1st. 

 My year here closes June 30th." That summer he began work in 

 Smith's laboratory of plant pathology and studied, among other 

 things, a blight in cherry, a disease of seed onions from Bermuda, 

 and beet diseases. He canvassed beet sugar factories for informa- 

 tion regarding beet diseases he was to study: damping off, curly 

 top or blight, leaf spot, leaf scorch, beet scab, rhizoctonia rot, 

 root gall, etc." Soon he was to begin a journey to the west to 

 investigate diseases in the field. The beet sugar industry had 

 expanded more rapidly than perhaps any other in the United 

 States, and was exacting much attention from agriculturists.'*^ 



The demand for American cotton had been increasing of recent 

 years, and the cotton-growing industries more and more were 

 being extended to Texas and other southwestern states.'^ On 

 April 24, 1901, Benjamin Minge Duggar announced that he had 

 accepted a position with the Department, his work to be in part 

 to investigate cotton diseases in Texas and the southwest, and by 

 August he was planning a reconnaissance to his investigation-field. 

 He had studied under Atkinson and Farlow, and at one time 

 worked with Forbes's Illinois natural history survey. Before and 

 after taking advanced work at the University of Leipzig, he had 

 been a graduate instructor and assistant professor of plant physi- 



'^ See, C. O. Townsend, Some diseases of the sugar beet, U. S. Dep't of Agric. 

 Report 72: 90-101, Aug. 30, 1902. 



"•^ Yearbook U. S. Dep't of Agric. for 1901: 487. 

 ""Idem, 196, 203, 205. 



