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REPORT OF THE DELEGATE TO THE CANADIAN BRANCH OF THE 

 AMERICAN PHYTOPATHOLOGiCAL SOCIETY. 



Professor B. T. Dickson. 



Mr. President and members : — 



I have the honour, as your representative at the annual meeting of the above 

 Society, to present herewith a report of the proceedings. 



The meetings were held at Guelph, Ont., in the Biological Building of the 

 Ontario Agricultural College, on Dec. 11 and 12, 1919. 



There were present about forty members among whom may be mentioned : — 

 Dr. A. H. R. Buller of Manitoba Univ., Prof. W. P. Fraser of Saskatoon and 

 late of Macdonald College, Dr. W. H. Rankin of St. Catherines, Dr. J. H. Faull 

 of Toronto Univ., P. A. Murphy of Charlottetown, P.E.I., and W. L. Drayton of 

 the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. 



The guest of the Society was Dr. E. C. Stakman, of Minnesota, a practical 

 authority on Rusts of cereals. 



The meeting opened with the Presidential address by Prof. J. E. Howitt 

 of the O. A. C. He dealt concisely in his remarks with the following points : — 

 The immediate and pressing need for some arrangement whereby contributions 

 to our knowledge of Plant Pathology may be published in Canada ; the education 

 of Plant Pathologists both as to their technical studies and as to their relations 

 with the agricultural community ; the value of standardizing the requirements in 

 the training of Plant Pathologists; the unification of recommendations to 

 farmers; and finally the need for a plant disease survey of the Dominion. 



The President's address opened up avenues for discussion of which ad- 

 ^•antage was taken, especially at the evening session. 



This evening meeting took the form of a Smoker and was very much en- 

 joyed by all present. Dr. Stakman dealt with the "Rust Problem". He is a forceful 

 speaker, enthusiastic in his w^ork, and consequently he held his audience spell- 

 bound for an hour. It is impossible, unfortunately, to do more than state the 

 salient fact of his address in this report. He showed very clearly that, whilst 

 urediniospores of Puccinia grammis triiici may live over winter and then give 

 rise to the commencement of an outbreak of Black Stem Rust of wheat, the bar- 

 berry was a still potent agent in this respect. He strongly advocated the thorough 

 extermination of the common barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) and its replacement 

 by the Japanese barberry (Berberis Thunbergii) or some other equally ornamental 

 but harmless shrub. He pointed out that a hybrid between the common barberry 

 and the Japanese barberry was also an alternate host, and that this hybrid looked 

 remarkably like the true Japanese barberry. 



Dr. Stakman also spoke on Friday afternoon, Dec. 12th., when he discussed 

 some of his work with Biologic species in the cereal rusts, illustrating his remarks', 

 with lantern slides. 



