jgo TOMATO. 



"Varieties of tomatoes more subject to the oedema: 

 those with a tendency to a very rapid and succulent 

 growth are more liable to the trouble; tomatoes which 

 develop a firm, woody young stem are less liable to it." 

 The most serious disease of forced tomatoes which I 

 have yet encountered is what, for lack of a better name, I 

 called the winter blight, * and which is the concern of 

 the remainder of this chapter. This disease was first de- 

 scribed in Garden and Forest in 1892. f The disease first 

 appeared in our house in the winter of 1890-91, when 

 about a dozen plants were somewhat affected. At this 

 time the trouble was not regarded as specific ; the plants 

 were old, and had borne one crop, and it was thought 



62. Winter blight of tomato. 



that they were simply worn out. In some of our exper- 

 iments it became necessary to carry about a dozen plants 

 over the summer, and these were introduced into the 

 house when the forcing season opened the next October. 

 From this stock the trouble again spread, and in six or 

 eight weeks it had become serious, and there was no longer 

 any doubt that we were contending with a specific disease. 

 This winter blight attacks the leaves. The first indi- 



* In Bulletin 43, Cornell Exp. Sta. 



t A New Disease of the Tomato, by E. G. Lodeman. Garden and 

 Forest, v. 175 (Apr. 13, 1892). 



