CHAPTER XXI. 



THE ILLS THAT COTTON IS HEIR TO 



From our general knowledge of diseases it seems 

 not unnatural that any plant grown to any extent 

 on the same areas year after year, subject to the 

 same treatment, living under the same environ- 

 ments, should in time be attacked by* diseases pe- 

 culiar to itself. Doubtless many of our common 

 plant diseases have been present for considerable 

 periods of time, but have been developed and rec- 

 ognized only with the development and application 

 of science to agriculture. It is reasonable to sup- 

 pose that we have had for sometime many of the 

 maladies that now affect cotton. Doubtless many 

 of these have been recognized by practical occur- 

 rence, but until a pathological study was made they 

 were not definitely described and the range and 

 extent of their ravages not clearly known. It is 

 scarcely correct therefore to say that the common 

 maladies of the cotton plant in the United States 

 are of recent occurrence; rather they have been 

 with us to a greater or less extent for a long time, / 

 but have become more prevalent in recent years, 

 since cotton production has become a more cen- 

 tralized industry and its culture more intensive. 



It is natural to suppose that where planted spar- 



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