88 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 12 



be scattered throughout our larger anthracite coal mining area, cover- 

 ing a large area of northeastern Pennsylvania. It is a pleasing report 

 that we can offer now, that no other centers of infection exist, as far 

 as our present knowledge goes, although subsequent inspection may 

 reveal it at other points. 



The finding of this disease in such peculiar and unsuspected places 

 will at once caution our inspectors to look for it in similar localities, 

 where the demand for potatoes far exceeds the local production, and 

 to which points foreign potatoes may have come to supply the de- 

 mands in years of short crops. Especially important, it seems, is a 

 careful inspection in gardens of our larger cities and their suburbs, 

 and of larger manufacturing centers, which should be carried out next 

 summer and autumn with as much care and speed as possible. Our 

 eastern states should immediately secure special appropriations for 

 such surveys, so that no time will be lost in rounding up the pest. 



Originally described from Hungary by Professor Schilbersky in 1896, 

 and first brought to public attention, the potato wart disease has 

 rapidly spread through Hungary and Germany into the British Isles 

 and Norway, and there is strong probability that under the war con- 

 ditions for the past four years, the pest has been even more widely 

 spread than our present records would indicate. Late reports from 

 England show that tremendous spread of the disease has obtained on 

 account of the lack of inspection facilities during the war period, and 

 that the loss, in consequence, has been very heavy. The disease was 

 introduced into Newfoundland, at the islands of Saints Pierre and 

 Miquelon, but the Pennsylvania record is the first for the United States. 



The wart disease belongs to one of the lower families of fungi, the 

 Olpidiacece, and is closely aUied to the Synchytriums — formerly having 

 been classified in this group. Fortunately, the disease is known to 

 attack but one plant other than the common potato, Solanum tuberosum, 

 and its varieties; and even tomato plants growing in very badly dis- 

 eased soil in the Pennsylvania infections, showed no trace of the attack 

 of the potato wart disease. Bitter-sweet is slightly affected. 



Numerous publications and references to this dangerous disease have 

 appeared in European literature, but up to the present little has ap- 

 peared in American literature. Circular No. 52 of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, by W. A. Orton and Ethel C. Field, discusses briefly 

 the wart disease of the potato, its nature and distribution, along with 

 three excellent halftones, as well as a list of the more important liter- 

 ature pertaining to this disease published since 1896. 



All portions of the potato plant may be attacked by this pest, but 

 more frequently it is apparent on the underground portions of the 

 stem, roots and tubers. It attacks the tuber usually at or near the 



