REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 21 



strate the necessity for more intensive and fundamental research. Investiga- 

 tions in plant pathology and contributing sciences must be encouraged if our 

 North American botanists are to lead the world in plant pathology. 



Those who view the profession from the outside may be impressed with the 

 progress of this comparativeh'^ new branch of science, but those of us who are 

 in the profession and see it from the inside get an entirely different view. We 

 see before u's the unexplored fields and the gr^at possibilities. We see the great 

 losses due to inknown or only partly know causes. We see many complicated 

 problems which cannot be solved by any other than the untiring, well trbined 

 enthusiastic worker. We see the extremely difficult problems in fruit, field an.d 

 truck crop diseases; we see the many untouched problems in diseases of orna- 

 mental plants, in the diseases of forest trees; the so-called physiological and 

 environmental diseases; the diseases due to smoke and gas; the diseases follow- 

 ing injuries due to insects and other organisms; the problems involving trans- 

 mission of diseases; the problems involved in the study of soil organisms. There- 

 fore, my appeal at this time is for the support of the research side of our pro- 

 fession; for a research that will lay a foundation on which we will build a more 

 scientific and more useful plant pathology. My appeal is for the recognition 

 of the superiority of scientific methods over empirical rules. My appeal is for 

 the appreciation and support of the research man, who working faithfully in 

 his laboratory or on a small plot of ground, seldom receives either the applause 

 or the remuneration which are given to the practicioner of plant pathology or to 

 the superficially trained field worker who imagines he is a plant pathologist 

 but whose efforts would be impossible without the research with which he is so 

 unfamiliar. 



The demand for and the character of the work in plant pathology must 

 convince all thinking persons that all plant pathologists cannot devote the ma- 

 jor part of their time to research. We are rapidly coming to the same position 

 as the medical profession, in which we will have our research workers, our ex- 

 perts or specialists and our practicioners; although the lines may not be rigidly 

 drawn. The research workers will give the greater part of their attention to 

 original investigation with possibly some time to teaching, they must have the 

 very greatest freedom and must not be harassed by the demands for immediate 

 results and applications. They must be allowed to work on fundamental pro- 

 blems involving taxonomy, physiology, culture methods, bio-chemistry, and 

 other phases of the subject in which the relationship to control may be remote. 

 The expert or specialist may devote the major part of his time to the study of a 

 group of causal organisms, to a particular type of disease or to the diseases of 

 some particular crop. He must be primarily a research worker and may or 



