12 



We have noticed that many of these affected roots show a tendency 

 to throw up small insignificant shoots as if they were endeavoring 

 to recover, but this recovery is more apparent than real, and it would 

 be the wisest policy for growers to dig them up and replace them 

 with new plants. 



The Probable Cause of the Severe Outbreak. 



In considering the asparagus rust in the U. S. it is not only proper 

 to pay some attention to the source of contagion, but to the cause of 

 the severe outbreak. We have already alluded to the fact that the 

 rust has been known in Europe for many years, and that it was 

 introduced from that country into the U. S., and although the rust 

 was first noticed in 1896 we are not justified in stating at 

 what time the disease first actually appeared. It may have been 

 here only a few mouths previous to the general outbreak, or it may 

 have existed much longer in a restricted locality, only waiting for a 

 favorable opportunity to become widely disseminated. 



To us, however, it is rather astonishing that the rust has not shown 

 itself here long before this, as many of the other European fungous 

 diseases have done. We know from the very earliest records that 

 the greater majority of our troublesome weeds made their appear- 

 ance in America at the time of the first settlement, and wherever 

 the colonists wandered these old country weeds, which were so famil- 

 iar to them at home, were among the first immigrants to meet them. 

 And what would apply to weed seeds would seem to apply with 

 greater force to the smaller and more numerous fungous spores. It 

 is, indeed, difficult to understand why the enormous tratlic existing 

 between Europe and America at the present time is not the means of 

 introducing every form of plant life that can possibly thrive in this 

 couutry. 



So far as our observations extend here in Massachusetts there 

 appear, however, to be other causes of the rust, or at least the 

 severe outbreak of it, which should be taken into consideration. We 

 are of the opinion that the asparagus plants were in the most favor- 

 able condition during the summer of 1896 for a severe outbreak to 

 occur. The seasons of 1895 and 1896 were exceedingly dry, so 

 much so that the larger majority of plants adapted to dry soils were 

 great sufferers, while the season of 1897 was equally abnormal for 

 it was a season of excessive rains. After an inspection of the local- 



