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Some [LARGE BOTANICAL PROBLEMS. 
J. C. ARTHUR. 
Every farmer, without doubt, desires to produce bumper crops. As 
agriculture is one of the large factors in national prosperity, it is to the 
interest of every person in whatever walk of life that bumper crops should 
be produced. The Experiment Station in each State has been established 
to assist the cultivator, whether farmer, orchardist, gardener, or any other 
grower, to solve the problems that hinder maximum production. Some of 
the problems fall naturally to the botanist. It is well to review them, and 
not only recognize where the problems lie, but have some idea of their 
importance. As there are plenty of urgent botanical problems in the home 
State, it will not be necessary to go outside of Indiana to find illustrative 
material. 
Probably the associated problems that give greatest concern to the 
cultivator, but which are obscure and little understood, and therefore 
much in need of study, are the plant diseases which most botanists be- 
lieve to be connected with soil sanitation. Often they occasion great loss 
in a crop without the cause being apparent. The soil seems to be all right 
and proper cultivation has been given, but the plants fail to make their 
best growth or even dwindle and die. Reference is made to a variety 
of diseases caused by minute fungi or bacteria, and which attack various 
garden, truck and field crops. Some instances may be cited without pre- 
tending to give them in the order of their importance. 
Soil Fungi Attacking Vegetables——A conspicuous set of diseases, given 
the name of wilt, is due to certain fungi or bacteria, in which the plants 
deyelop normally and may even be bearing, when within a few days they 
wilt and die as completely as if the roots had been severed. The wilt 
of watermelons, usually due to a species of Fusarium, and of cantaloupes, 
more often due to bacteria, has often carried off a large part or even all 
of these crops, so extensively grown in the southern half of the State. 
The same or similar diseases extend to cucumbers, squashes. and other 
cucurbits. The partial remedies so far used are rotation of crops ard 
disease-resistant varieties. The germs in certain cases are known to hive 
