rot after being set out in the bed, even though in many instances no 

 trouble showed itself until the time of blossoming, the disease came 

 from the seed bed and 7oas not contracted by healthy plants after being 

 set out in the field. Our own plants have been started each year in 

 the same house, the same flats, and possibly to some extent in the 

 same soil. It seems almost certatn that the germs of this fungus are 

 thoroughly established here ; at any rate the trouble has steadily 

 increased from none in 1899 to almost every plant in 1901, while 

 each year plants started out of doors, set out in the same beds and 

 often in ground occupied by diseased plants the previous year have 

 shown no trouble of this sort whatever. The past season when the 

 greenhouse-started plants were almost all killed sooner or later by 

 the stem rot, our large bed presented a most instructive appearance. 

 hX one end was a large block of plants started out of doors. Here 

 and there through the bed were a few other rows of similar plants. 

 The rest of the field had been set with greenhouse plants. By the 

 time that blossoming was well under way scarcely a plant remained 

 alive in the whole bed except in the portions set with out-of-door 

 plants, and here not a single plant showed this blight. 



Treatment for Stem Rot. Plainly the avoidance of this disease 

 lies in starting with healthy plants, grown out of doors or in cold 

 frames, rather than in the greenhouse where the conditions are more 

 favorable to damping off. Of course many good plants are started 

 in greenhouses, but the disease is rapidly increasing in prevalence 

 and appears to start almost invariably from such conditions. Plants 

 started out of doors are insured against this trouble, and, though 

 perhaps a little later, may easily be brought to full development at 

 the normal season. As regards time of blossoming there is no 

 marked advantage in obtaining very early plants, with the possible 

 exception of Queen of the Market and similar extra early varieties. 

 Plant the seed in good soil out of doors as early as the ground can 

 be thoroughly worked, in a place where asters have never grown 

 before. Thin out the young plants if necessary, transplant to the 

 permanent bed as soon as they are large enough and when condi- 

 tions are favorable, and, so far as stem rot is concerned, no trouble 

 need be feared. The knowledge that the disease is contracted only 

 in the seed bed is, of course, the basis of this recommendation, which 

 though brief and simple, is believed to be one of the most valuable 

 points brought out in this bulletin. 



