28 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of Plant Pathology, namely, Cornell University and the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin. Some of our experiment stations have, 

 within the last four or five years, appointed to their staffs investi- 

 gators with the title of Plant Pathologist. Nowhere, so far as 

 I know, have trained men gone forth to practice the profession of 

 Plant Pathologist as do our doctors or veterinarians. The delayed 

 development of this field of professional service is, it seems to me, 

 but a natural phenomenon in the evolution of our economic civi- 

 lization. Human medicine developed early and has been pushed 

 forward with such mighty strides, chiefly because of the natural 

 desire of the human individual for self preservation and perpetua- 

 tion. It has called forth the highest type of scientific endeavor 

 and professional heroism, chiefly because of the human element 

 involved. That animal pathology should have been the next to 

 receive consideration is natural. Recognizing the close relationship 

 between himself and the animals that serve him, it is but natural 

 that man should early have sought to treat their wounds and relieve 

 their sufferings. Another and not unimportant factor in the devel- 

 opment of animal pathology was its economic importance. The 

 loss of a horse, a cow, or a dog is often a calamity. Upon the life 

 and health of his animals may depend the worldly prosperity, in 

 fact, even the existence of the owner himself. This has been an 

 added and sometimes a most potent force in impelling the careful 

 study of animal diseases and their control. 



Plants represent the other type of life expression different from 

 that of the animal kingdom of which man himself is the highest 

 development. He has, therefore, looked upon plants from quite 

 a different point of view from that with which he has regarded his 

 animals. Unlike the horse, the cow, or the dog they have seldom 

 been his servants, rarely his companions. He regards them as so 

 much material, to be chopped, reaped, eaten, burned, or trampled 

 upon, often less to him than the rocks of the field or the ore of 

 the mines. The ease and readiness with which new plants may be 

 grown to replace those he has eaten or wasted, their great abundance 

 and variety, and their helplessness before his onslaughts, have 

 demanded of him little respect or consideration. Since their 

 ways of manifesting injury, sickness, starvation, and death are so 

 different from his own or his animals, their ills have not appealed 



