650 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



A brief account Is given of the work done during ttie past year on the her- 

 barium and mycological survey, including a list of fungi from the State w^hich 

 have been added to the herbarium. 



Report of botanist and plant pathologist, H. L. Bolley (North Dakota 

 Sta. Rpt. 1910, pp. JfS, ^, JfG, Jf7). — The work, as in previous years, has been a 

 study of the plants found resident in the soils of old cultivated lands and in 

 the virgin soils, and of the micro-organisms that are found in the soils and 

 upon cultivated plants on such soils. It is claimed that in many cases lands, 

 which no longer produce the proper cereal crops, are not depleted of the plant- 

 food constituents, but are contaminated with certain fungal organisms which 

 attack the cultivated plants, destroying their roots, injuring the straw, and 

 shriveling the grain. This is often the case during the years when otherwise 

 the climatic and soil conditions are particularly favorable for a large growth 

 of grain. It is also claimed that manures which are made in stables in which 

 diseased straw has been used for bedding are very detrimental when spread 

 without composting upon lands that are to raise the same kind of crop as that 

 from which the bedding was made. In the work with bacteria and fungi of the 

 soil it was found that many fungi ordinarily classed as saprophytes, especially 

 Fusarium, Colletotrichum, Macrosporium, Altenaria, and Helminthosporium 

 attack the roots, straw, and seeds of wheat, oats, barley, and fiax. 



The work so far on soils has been on the Red River Valley soils, and those 

 taken from the demonstration farm at Rugby. 



Reports on the diseases of economic plants in .Germany for 1906, 1907, 

 and 1908 (Bcr. Landtv. Reichsamte Innern [Germany] 1909, Nos. 13, pp. 

 Vn+179; 16, pp. VII+215; 1910, No. 18, pp. VI 1 1 +209). —These reports 

 include discussions of the meteorological conditions, the influence of disease on 

 the yield of certain crops, and various fungus, insect, and weed pests of field, 

 forest, orchard, and truck crops during each of the years 1906, 1907, and 1908. 



New observations on potato and grain diseases, J. Vanha (Wiener Laridw. 

 Ztg., 60 (1910), No. 95, p. 966). — The author claims to have found in the potato 

 tissues attacked by leaf-roll disease not only the fungus Solanella rosea (E. S. 

 R., 24, p. 154), but also 2 others, for which the names Sclcrotinia solani n. sp., 

 and Vermicularia dissepta n, sp., are proposed. 



Crown gall and sarcoma, E. F. Smith (U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. 

 Circ. 85, pp. Jf). — Attention is again called to the resemblance in crown gall of 

 plants to certain malignant animal tumors (E. S. R., 25, p. 243), especially 

 sarcoma, and the results of further investigations on the origin and character 

 of the secondary crown gall of plants are given. 



From experiments with pure cultures of the daisy schizomycete the following 

 facts were obtained : The bacterium causing the primary tumors was found to 

 occur also in the secondary tumors and sparingly in the tissues between the 

 tumors. In this disease a cell stimulus begun in the primary tumors by the 

 parasite is not able to propagate itself independently of the inciting organism. 

 On the contrary, the bacterium and the tumor cells occur together both in the 

 primary and secondary tumors, the one inside of the other. 



The causative organism has not been seen in situ in the cells owing to in- 

 ability to stain the organism without at the same time staining many confusing 

 granules, but the indirect evidence of its presence is clearly proved by obtaining 

 from the interior of the tumor tissues by the poured plate method the tumor- 

 producing organism, Bacterium tumefaciens, even when stained sections of such 

 tissues when studied under the microscope showed no evidence of the presence of 

 the bacterium. It is claimed that deep-seated tumor strands are often found 

 connecting primary and secondary tumors, wedging their way through the in- 

 terior of stems and leaves after the manner of a foreign body. When the 



