94 



distinctly alkaline, even though it be acid before the organism has grown 

 on it. The diseased beet roots give a neutral or very slightly acid reaction. 



In a Pasteur sugar culture the bacteria grow well, causing the liquid to 

 become slightly turbid in 24 hours. As growth goes on, the turbidity be- 

 comes greater, and again decreases until at the end of nine or ten days, 

 when the growth practically ceases, the liquid becomes clear, the bacte- 

 ria forming a greyish yellow sediment in the bottom of the tube. 



They also develop well in sterilized sugar beet juice, but as contact with 

 the air causes the juice to turn black, they are not readily seen. In juice 

 that had been cleared by filtering through bone black very poor growths 

 were obtained. 



Inoculation tests were made upon six apparently healthy roots that were 

 brought from the garden into the greenhouse. Four of these now give in- 

 dications of having the disease ; the leaves are crinkled, the under side 

 being dull and mottled in appeaVance. Bacteria were found in the leaves 

 and petioles. 



Considerable interest attaches to this disease from its reduction of the 

 sugar content of the root, and its prevalence throughout the state. The 

 study of the subject was begun too late to estimate the loss by the dis- 

 ease, but as was already mentioned, diseased plants were found among all 

 the beets grown on the station grounds, which included eight varieties for 

 the past year — Red Top sugar, Silesian sugar. Imperial sugar, Dippe's Vil- 

 morin, Simon LeGrand improved white, Dippe's Kleiwanzleben, Flormond 

 Desprez richest, and Bultean Desprez richest. Roots were sent to the 

 station for analysis from twenty-seven different places in the state and 

 from nineteen of these some of the roots were diseased. This is not a 

 fair estimate of the prevalence of the disease, however, as the tendency is, 

 in sending beets for analysis, to choose the best looking and most nearly 

 perfect ones, and the proportion of infected specimens included is neces- 

 sarily much short of the actual average. 



There were more of the Kleiwanzleben and Vilmorin beets sent than of 

 the other varieties, and these gave respectively 12.9 per cent, and 12.7 per 

 cent, diseased roots. Counting all the varieties there were 434 beets s(nt, 

 among which were 12.1 per cent, diseased. In analyzing for the sugar con- 

 tent one set gave 13.3 per cent for good beets, 11.9 per cent, for beets show- 

 ing a trace of the disease ; another set gave 10.2 per cent, for good ones, 7 per 

 cent, for diseased ones; while still another set, that Prof. Huston thinks 

 gives the fairest estimate of loss, gave 10.3 per cent, for good beets, and 5.7 



