22 a EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



outright. The peach crop was almost a total failure on account 

 of fruit buds being killed, and many peach orchards suffered 

 heavily from killing back of wood and death of trees. Many 

 trees and shrubs which were only partially killed or injured 

 by the winter conditions failed to recuperate on account of the 

 unfavorable growing conditions which prevailed throughout 

 the following summer. The month of June was abnormally 

 cold, and vegetation was checked to a considerable degree. 

 Late in the month killing frosts occurred on two days, causing 

 a large amount of damage to garden and truck crops, especially 

 in the eastern part of the State. A long period of drought, 

 extending through June, July and August, occasionally broken 

 by rainfall insufficient to compensate for the extreme dryness, 

 caused vegetation to suffer severely. To the weather conditions 

 may be attributed much of the trouble which interfered with 

 crop development. Potatoes especially were seriously affected. 

 So unusual and general was the injury to potatoes that the 

 time of the pathologists was severely taxed by calls to the field. 

 After a State-wide investigation it became evident that potatoes 

 were suffering from a combination of conditions which were 

 often so complicated as to make diagnosis most difficult and 

 frequently uncertain. In general, however, two distinct types 

 of injury usually resulting in early death of the vines were 

 apparent. Careful study in field and laboratory convinced the 

 writer that these were due directly or indirectly to drought and 

 to a fungus of the genus Phoma. The potato is very susceptible 

 to lack of moisture, and where planted on light soil or on hill- 

 sides the crop suffered, as a rule, in proportion to the drying 

 out of the soil. Premature yellowing, wilting and dying of the 

 vines were the marked characteristics of this trouble. It seems 

 doubtful if it was in any way associated with the type of 

 fertilizer used, although it was perhaps less severe in a few 

 cases where stable manure was employed. This, however, is 

 attributable to the better water-holding capacity of soil con- 

 taining abundant organic matter. Absence of potash in com- 

 mercial fertilizers has been advanced by some investigators 

 as one factor responsible for this condition. In the course of 

 our field investigations we found a number of plots where 

 potash in the usual amounts had been applied, but with no 



