20 PROTECTION OF PL ANTS — 1922-23 



bers of the profession at this time. In faot we are ah-eady hearing complaints 

 to the effect that many of the younger Avorkers are very poorly trained in the 

 fundamentals of botany. This criticism may be and no doubt is justifiable in 

 many cases, but we must remember that the mother subject no longer consists 

 of the single line of taxonomy, but of many lines such as morphology, physiology 

 bio-chemistry and plant breeding, all of which are more or less important in 

 the basic training of the modern plant pathologist. Furthermore the proper 

 study of these lines makes it necessary that he study physics and chemistry. 

 Possibly the practice of plant pathology makes it desirable that our workers 

 should also be trained in horticulture, agronomy and related subjects. If so, 

 the period of study becomes abnormally long as compared with the strand of 

 human life^ 



What then must be the training of the plant pathologist of the future? 

 Possibly before going farther we should define plant pathology. Perhaps the 

 definition which would most clearly express the idea of most people who are 

 familiar with the subject would be to say that it is the study of the causes, symp- 

 toms and control of plant diseases. You will note that plant pathology is used 

 in a much broader sense than animal plathology. Plant Pkthology is like medi- 

 cine in that it has to do with the study of the causes, symptoms and results of 

 control of diseases, but it is different in that it is concerned primarily with pre- 

 vention rathefr than with the cure of diseases. At the present time, the demands 

 of a rapidly increasing population for food, clothing and other plant products, 

 and the development of an intensive agriculture to satisfy these demands, are 

 emphasizing the importance of the prevention and control of plant diseases 

 rather than the necessity for studying them. The result is that we are drawing 

 on the great storehouse of information accumulated by the workers of the past 

 much more rapidly than we are adding to it by our own researches. This is 

 being encouraged by short-sighted legislators who appropriate public funds 

 much more readily and more freely to the practice than to the study of plant 

 pathology. The result is that in some cases extension men and others who have 

 little or no training in the fundamentals of the subject are called on to practise 

 plant pathology. In this connection we frequently hear the superficially trained 

 workers making comparisons between the so-called practical and scientific, as 

 though anything could be practical that is not scientific. There is no such 

 thing as practical or successful agriculture or any other industry that is not 

 scientific, although the operator may not be educated and may not appreciate 

 that his methods are scientific. On the other hand the plant pathologists are 

 frequently criticized because much of their work is hasty and superficial. This 

 is due to the very great demand that is made on our workers for the control of 

 plant diseases and is likely to continue unless something can be done to demon- 



