1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 227 



tioned, spread rapidly, but not with perfect regularity. 

 When the leaves and stems were mostly killed by the 

 fungus, the fourth day after its appearance, those on sec- 

 tions 1 and 14, the third row of section 6, and the second 

 and third rows of both 7 and 13, were still fresh and com- 

 paratively unharmed. Comparison with the ta1)le given 

 above shows that the sections which suifered least were 

 those in w^hich the potatoes were planted directly on manure, 

 and the rows which were planted with the varieties desig- 

 nated as white and hlack. That some varieties are less 

 susceptible than others to attacks of the rot, has been 

 repeatedly shown ; but why planting on manure should give 

 protection against it, as seems here to have been the case, 

 is not easy to see ; yet there was no other difference in 

 conditions between plots 1 and 14, on -one hand, and 2-4, 

 9-11, and 15-113, on the other hand. Yet all the latter 

 suffered equally and very severely. The attack was not of 

 the most violent sort, and, even on the worst-affected 

 plants, there was not the complete collapse into a slimy, 

 putrescent mass, wdiicli is the result of the extreme form of 

 the disease. Nothing now remained to be done but to har- 

 vest the potatoes as quickly as pos&iI)le. Press of other 

 farm work prevented immediate attention, but they were all 

 harvested before the end of the month, in very good con- 

 dition, so i'AX as the rot was concerned. Later potatoes, 

 on other fields, which received less prompt attention, were 

 an almost total loss. 



Notes on other fungous diseases are reserved until more 

 complete data can be accumulated concerning them. 



4. JSfotes on yiaterial i^eferred to the Department. 



Some of the examinations which have been made by the 

 department, of specimens referred to it, maj' be of sufficient 

 general interest to warrant a brief discussion here. 



1. Fungus in Cellar. — In December, 1888, a quantity 

 of a white, flocculent substance, mixed with gravel from the 

 cellar bottom on which it had grown, was sent in for exam- 

 ination. The house from whose cellar the material was 

 taken was a tenement-house, and the white growth in ques- 

 tion was a source of alarm to the tenants, who threatened to 



