PLANT PATHOLOGY—JONES. 417 
Spraying and seed treatments are only one part of sanitation in 
any case and have no part in many cases. Full data as to the life 
histories and modes of dissemination of causal organisms are more 
important fundamentals for improved sanitation than are further 
demonstrations with fungicides. The importance of fertilization, 
cultivation, and crop rotation in relation to sanitation, together with 
the destruction of diseased plant tissues_and the checking of the 
carriers of disease germs, deserve more critical attention than they 
have received from plant pathologists as well as plant cultivators. 
While America has for some time been the most advanced nation 
in controlling diseases by spraying, she has been one of the slowest 
to undertake plant disease exclusion. The plant quarantine act 
secured last year by the combined efforts of phytopathologists and 
entomologists marks, therefore, a most important forward step. The 
recent hearings relative to the potato disease quarantine, under this 
act, have served not only to emphasize its importance, both com- 
mercially and educationally, but also to point out important new 
duties for plant pathologists. In order wisely to administer such 
quarantine measures, there must be international cooperation among 
phytopathologists in determining the occurrence and seriousness of 
plant diseases. But while we are thus beginning to guard our borders 
against potato wart and other dangerous foreign diseases, what are we 
doing within our own territory? For example, we know that there is 
an alfalfa disease ( Urophlyctis alfalfe) similar to the black wart of 
potato in its nature and destructive possibilities, as yet apparently 
limited in its distribution to a few western alfalfa-growing sections.! 
No official steps have as yet been taken, so far as I know, to make 
exact determinations of its present distribution or to guard against its 
being carried to other places on seed. This would seem to be a 
National rather than a State function and ,the National plant disease 
survey already referred to would seem to be the logical first step. 
Tn this connection the plan outlined by Orton for official inspection 
and certification as to health of seed potatoes is highly significant.? 
I believe it must commend itself for adoption with various other crops 
as well. There is no other place more important for guarding the 
health of crops than at the source of seed. 
And finally, there is the question of disease resistance and im- 
munity. Of course, the idea is not new; observations upon the 
relative liability of varieties to disease come to us from early times. 
But the clearer conception of the possibilities in this respect of plant 
improvement through breeding is recent. The relative success of the 
1 O’Gara, P.J., Urophlyctis alfalfe, a fungous disease ofalfalfa. Science, N.S. 36: 487. 1912. 
2 Presented in a paper, ‘‘A Plan of Potato Seed Inspection,” before the annual meeting of the Wisconsin. 
Potato Growers’ Association, Nov. 20,1913. See abstract in bulletin issued by J. G. Milward, secretary, 
Madison, Wis., “‘Potato Development Work in Wisconsin,’’ p. 49, issued April, 1914. 
73176°—sM 1914 27 
