174 



THE POTATO 





at once report it to the Secretary, Board of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries, 4 Whitehall Place, London, 

 S. W. In reporting an outbreak, occupiers must 

 state their names in full and their postal address, 

 and it is desirable that specimens for identification 

 should be sent to the Board. Neglect to report 

 renders the owner liable to a penalty not exceeding 

 ten pounds ($50)." 



EARLY BLIGHT 



Potato Leaf Blight (Alternaria Solani). The 

 following description is from ' 'Bulletin No. 71 " of 

 the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station: 



"This disease has probably been long in exist- 

 ence. Our knowledge of it, however, is exceed- 

 ingly recent. So long as the real nature of potato 

 diseases were not understood, the diflFerent kinds 

 of such diseases were not discriminated. They 

 were all classed under one name, if named at all. 

 Our first definite knowledge of the early blight was 

 worked out in this country in the early '90's, though 

 references to it occur somewhat earlier in the 

 nineteenth century in European literacure. It 

 had been overlooked or confounded with the late 

 blight, but it is now fully understood that the 

 parasitic organism causing it is wholly different 

 from the one causing the late blight in structure, 

 in method and time of development, as well as the 

 conditions under which it occurs. 



"The fungus, like most other plant parasites, 

 lives within the tissues of the host, spreading its 

 mycelium through the intercellular spaces of the 

 leaf. It consists of slender threads (hyphse), more 

 or less branched, which tend to become aggregated 



