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the lookout; they are keeping it out as our own authorities at present are 
keeping out cholera, the plague, yellow fever, etc. It need scarcely be said 
that between the potato plant ard the potato bug there exists the relation- 
ship of host and disease. The potato bug in its destrucive action on the 
plant may be considered the disease; it will destroy the plant just as the 
potato-rot destroys it. Before the cause of the potato-rot was recognized 
it was looked upon as a visitation, just as many of the human diseases 
were looked upon. 
This fall the newspapers contained an occasional item regarding the 
spread of the potato-rot or potato disease. Just now the disease seems to 
be prevalent in some parts of Europe, destroying outright large potato fields 
in the course of a few days. Such an epidemic is a great calamity; it has 
been such in times past. It seems to be only a matter of time until the 
disease will reach our State. This disease seems to be at home originally in 
South America on the wild plants, but plants were few and far apart. 
When the potato is grown in masses this fungus disease naturally spreads 
very rapidly from one plant to another and fromone field to another. 
But it was noticed that after an epidemic a few plants survived. By 
taking these survivors and cultivating them a more and more resistant 
strain has been produced. One can thus speak of disease proof potatoes, 
just as we can speak of disease proof individuals, for instance, the negroes 
on the west const of Africa, who are constantly exposed to malaria and are 
quite immune. 
In the life of every individual there are periods that stand out. We 
need only think of such statements as “Before I went to college”, or 
“Before I got married’. Similar periods or landmarks stand out in the 
life of a community, as “Before we had paved streets” or “Before we had 
filtered water”. We can likewise speak regarding the introduction of 
weeds and pests and parasities and diseases, as the days “before the 
potato bug”’. 
Perhaps in tracing analogies one might mention the coming to our 
country of such diseases as Influenza and Asiatic Cholera. In earlier 
years, when the country was thinly settled, many escaped, and, on account 
of poor traveling facilities, diseases traveled slowly. Influenza has trav- 
eled more rapidly each time it appeared and attacked a greater number of 
people, because they are now living closer together. There are regions 
today, especially islands in the ocean, where some of our common diseases 
have not yet been introduced. 
