28 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



the military post wliicli would answer all the purposes required, and a 

 small stream runs through, the reservation, supplying water for stock 

 and some for irrigation. A very moderate appropriation, applied 

 under the direction of this Department, could here be made pro- 

 ductive of great good. 



MYCOLOGICAL SECTION. 

 INVESTIGATIONS OF TEE FUNGOUS DISEASES OF PLANTS. 



The heavy losses sustained by the fruit-growers and farmers of the 

 country on account of the mildews, blights, smuts, rusts, and other 

 injurious fungi — losses amounting in the aggregate to many millions 

 of dollars annually — very forcibly demonstrate the importance of 

 thoroughly investigating the nature and habits of these destructive 

 parasites, with the view of discovering means for preventing their 

 ravages. 



^arly in my administration I found that the Dei)artment was in 

 constant receipt of letters from agriculturists and fruit-growers in 

 all parts of the country, earnestly asking for information on matters 

 pertaining to this subject, and especially inquiring for remedies that 

 will enable the*m to prevent ox at least check the losses occasioned by 

 these parasites. 



Memorials from scientific societies have frequently been addressed 

 to the Commissioner, setting forth the importance of the investiga- 

 tion of plant diseases, and strongly urging the establishing in the 

 Department of a division to be wholly devoted to this work. 



Fully appreciating the value and importance of information on 

 this subject, and understanding its intimate connection with the in- 

 terests of horticultuTe and general agriculture, one of the first mat- 

 ters, therefore, to which I gave attention upon assuming the duties 

 of Commissioner was this question of the fungous diseases of plants. , 

 In the absence of a specific appropriation for the prosecution of this 

 work, the duties involved were assigned to the Assistant Botanist, a 

 person fully (qualified to conduct the required investigations, and 

 whose appointment was made with this object in view. 



Investigations were prosecuted with as much vigor as possible dur- 

 ing the year, and among the important plant diseases that have been 

 directly brought to the attention of the Department by correspond- 

 ents during that time are pear blight, the fungous diseases of wheat 

 and rice, corn smut, the smut of the smaller grains, strawberry rust, 

 the red rust of the raspberry, raspberry-cane rust, leaf-spot disease 

 of the raspberry, ''double flowers" of blackberry, foot-rot of the 

 orange tree, the nectria of orange twigs, orange-leaf scab, gooseberry 

 blight, leaf-spot disease of the currant, black knot of the plum and 

 cherry trees, apple-leaf scab and rust, the disease causing the crack- 

 ing of pears and apples, peach yellows, peach-leaf curl, plum rot, 

 potato scab, cotton rust, and the various fungous diseases of the grape. 



