416 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
trol; but you have heard them often, so I need not repeat them; and 
they have much of truth in them. The Yankee is practical, and the 
Yankee mind dominates everywhere in America. Instead of boasting, 
we rather owe ourselves this explanation—shall we say apology ?— 
when we point to the relative proportion of the space in American 
plant pathological publications given to the consideration of the spray 
pump and the disinfecting solution. How could it be otherwise? 
The millions spent by patent medicine advertisers have implanted 
firmly in the American mind the idea that each animal disease is a 
specific thing and for it there exists a specific remedy. It was, there- 
fore, most lucky that when the professional “plant doctor” was 
introduced to the American rural constituency by the State experi- 
ment stations and National Department of Agriculture he could step 
forward with Bordeaux mixture in one hand and formaldehyde in the 
other, two specifics which could at once be used and misused in a most 
amazing variety of cases without serious danger of loss of life or 
reputation. And just as these were becoming somewhat common- 
place, lime-sulphur was brought to our aid and with it the added enter- 
prise of the American commercial advertiser. 
Please do not misunderstand me. I recognize clearly that the 
highest duty in plant pathology is service, and that the chief aim in 
that service is to lessen loss from plant diseases. The only question 
is, How can we best serve to this end? 
Perhaps as conditions have been, we could not at the outset have 
done much better. It was necessary first to educate the public as to 
the amount of their loss from plant diseases, as to the general nature 
of the parasites, and as to the great gains from the use of fungicides. 
In order to do this, the pathologist must familiarize himself with 
these things by repeated observations and trials and must contribute 
in turn to the education of the horticulturist, the agronomist, and the 
agricultural press. This has taken time—in many cases nearly all of 
his time; but we may have satisfaction in the idea that it has been 
well done. No other country has had lke service and in no other 
country has the agricultural public followed the teachings so fully. 
It is important, however, for us to remember that this is the pioneer 
service, necessary and best at the outset; but that, as fast as con- 
ditions permit, we must be moving on to the attack on the more 
fundamental problems, to the performance of the more enduring 
service. The fundamental idea in plant disease control is prevention. 
It is surprising, if one goes over the list, how many diseases can not be 
prevented by the use of fungicides. For the great classes of bacterial 
diseases, rusts, and soil fungi, we must look to other measures. The 
three fundamental ideas which here deserve increased attention are 
sanitation, exclusion, disease resistance. 
