New YoRK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 125 
= 
BEAN. 
According to the United States Census Report for 1900 New 
— York has 129,298 acres devoted to the culture of beans and pro- 
duces 26.8 per ct. of the dry beans grown in the United States. 
Three bean diseases — anthracnose,®° bacteriosis and rust®*! were 
studied in 1892.3 Anthracnose (frequently, but incorrectly, called 
rust) is a common and very destructive disease, often causing losses 
of 25 per ct. and sometimes ruining the crop. It being known that 
anthracnose is transmitted by the seed an effort was made to find 
_ some seed treatment by means of which diseased seed could be made 
safe to plant. Experiments were made in which diseased beans were 
soaked in hot water and various fungicides, but in no case was there 
any benefit. In another experiment in which sorted and unsorted 
seed beans were compared, a much greater amount of anthracnose 
was found in the crop from the unsorted seed. Spraying experi- 
ments, also, were made. Of the three fungicides tested, bordeaux 
gave the best results. Four applications very nearly doubled the 
yield of healthy pods. As a result of the experiments the follow- 
ing treatment was recommended: 
“1. Selection of healthy seed. 
“2. Immediate removal of affected seedlings from the field. 
“3. Keeping the foliage covered with bordeaux mixture.” 
During the investigation of anthracnose it was discovered that 
there is another common disease of beans, considerably resembling 
anthracnose, which in some cases may be even more destructive 
than anthracnose. No doubt it is frequently confused with anthrac- 
nose. The leaves become spotted and yellow and the pods show 
soft, watery spots either with or without a red border. It was in 
this investigation that the bacterial nature of this disease was estab- 
lished for the first time. The germ was isolated and pods of Lima 
beans inoculated with pure cultures of it. “ These inoculations 
produced decay at the spots where the virus was introduced, while 
punctures made at the same time, but not inoculated, showed no 
signs of decay.” Subsequently, the organism was described and 
: named by Dr. Erwin Smith.** 
I a Ee, Oe 
eee ee ee gre 
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© Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (Sacc. & Magn.) Bri. & Cav. 
* Uromyces appendiculatus (Pers.) Lk. 
* Bul. 48 (1892); same in Rpt. 11:531-556. 
* Originally described under the name Bacillus phaseoli (Proc. Amer. 
Asso. Ady. Sci. 46:288. 1808) which was later changed to Pseudomonas 
phaseoli and finally to Bacterium phaseoli (Erw. Sm.) (Bacteriain Relation 
to Plant Diseases 1:171. 1905). 
