178 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



to the fact of this disease and to get you to co-operate with us at 

 Ames by sending us the material and let us determine more about 

 the disease so we can tell you more intelligently what the trouble 

 is and how it is to be handled. The symptoms are these : That 

 the roots are entirely decomposed and usually pinkish in color. 

 That is one disease. Then there is another disease that affects the 

 stalk. Just close to the joint it breaks off. Now, we found that 

 in a great many cases where the stalks are on the ground in this 

 way, that the ears are of very poor quality. There is another dis- 

 ease, and that affects the corn, the ear, the ear becoming moldy. 

 There is a great deal of that trouble in a good many parts of the 

 state. The University of Illinois has estimated that this mold on 

 the ears damaged their corn crop to the extent of seven or eight 

 million dollars annually. Now, I am sure if you would go over 

 the state you would find places where this corn crop is not over 

 twenty-five bushels to the acre, and in many cases it is not that 

 much. Now, you can easily double that yield, or could have dou- 

 bled that yield provided more care was taken in the rotation of 

 crops. I was out on the Missouri river bottoms about a month or 

 six weeks ago and I found fields that had been in corn for twenty- 

 five years. Now, this mold propagates in the soil, and when you 

 plant corn therein you are bound to get the disease. "What I want 

 to call your attention to particularly is, that I want your co-opera- 

 tion. If you find the disease, I would be glad to have you send 

 some of these moldy ears to me. I know I have told farmers of 

 this mould and have described this disease to them. They were 

 diverted by this fungus that caused the corn to fall over the way 

 it does. I would like to have you farmers that have observed any- 

 thing of this kind in your various parts of the state to raise your 

 hands. 



Mr. Cownie: Professor, down in Iowa county — I have spent 

 a good deal of time in Iowa county — our corn has stood up 

 quite well, but I never saw so many ears of corn that have been 

 infested with worms as this year. 



Prof. Pammel: There are a good many ears affected by worms 

 where we do not find mold. 



Mr. Cownie : I have been identified with farming in Iowa about 

 fifty-eight years and, while I was a few years in politics, I never 

 gave up farming, and I am frank to confess that I never saw as 



