BULLETIN No. 203. 



DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 



TOBACCO WILDFIRE. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT OF INVESTIGATIONS. 



BY G. H. CHAPMAN AND P. J. ANDERSON. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Wildfire is the name of a bacterial disease of tobacco which was first 

 reported in 1916 in North Carolina. It may possibly have been present 

 in previous years, but was not noted until Wolf and Foster (4) described 

 the trouble in that year, when it caused losses in some fields. Since 1916 

 it has been found in a number of the tobacco sections of the country, 

 more particularly in Kentucky, Virginia and South Carolina. It was first 

 noted in Connecticut in 1919, but was not reported in any amount until 

 1920, when Dr. Clinton of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment 

 Station found it to be serious locall5^ During the same season it was 

 found in three localities in Massachusetts. 



In 1921 a very serious seed-bed infection was reported from both Con- 

 necticut and Massachusetts, and at a somewhat later date the disease was 

 also reported from seed-beds in Pennsylvania and Ohio. ^ The disease 

 has not been serious in the South this year, but in Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut there was not only a wide seed-bed distribution, but also 

 severe infection, particularly in the broadleaf, where diseased plants were 

 set in the field. It is estimated that in Massachusetts approximately 20 

 per cent of the seed-beds, including those of all types of tobacco, had more 

 or less wildfire infection. In some cases there was only a slight infection, 

 and in others up to 90 per cent of the seedlings were infected. 



The importance of the disease to the tobacco industry is great because 

 leaves which are badly spotted are practically valueless; and further- 

 more, in the fields the infection works from the bottom of the plant 

 towards the top, as a rule, and the best-quality leaves are the ones first 

 infected. 



1 Plant Disease Bulletin, 5:19, 37. 1921. 



