2 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 213. 



slight interruptions, until the crop was harvested. Many of the growers 

 who had a slight foot-leaf infection profited by their experience of 1921 

 and did not wait for the tobacco to ripen, but cut it "on the green side" 

 and in this way reduced the damage somewhat. It is probably no exag- 

 geration to say that 90 per cent of the tobacco fields of the valley were 

 more or less affected. Some fields were so badly "fired" that not a clean 

 plant could be found, and the price received for the crop will be but a 

 fraction of the cost of growing. 



Wildfire in Other Sections. 



During the summer one of the writers had occasion to visit the tobacco 

 regions of New Hampshire and Vermont, where conditions were found to 

 be very similar to those which prevailed in Massachusetts. 



A serious outbreak occurred in Wisconsin (PI. Dis. Bui. 6: 40, 1.39), from which 

 State the disease had not been reported previously from farms. It was also re- 

 ported for the first time from New York and Georgia (PI. Dis. Bui. 6: 62, 63). It 

 occurred with more or less severity in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky (PI. 

 Dis. Bui. 6:21) and Ohio. It is rather surprising to find that in North Carolina 

 and Virginia, in which States the disease was first found and where it was very 

 destructive five years ago, there has been no damage from wildfire during 1922. 

 Under date of August 19, Dr. F. D. Fromme, plant pathologist of the Virginia 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, wrote: "We have yet to see a case of wildfire 

 in the 1922 crop in Virginia. We have inspected well over 100 fields in counties 

 where it has occurred in the past year. Plant beds were equally free from it this 

 year." Under date of August 21, Dr. F. A. Wolf, plant pathologist of the North 

 Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, wrote: " I have not received this season 

 a single authentic specimen of tobacco wildfire from this State." 



Previous to this year wildfire was not known to occur outside the United States. 

 It has now been reported from South Africa (2 : 366-368) . i 



Progress in Investigations. 



Investigations with the object of developing some method or methods 

 of preventing loss from wildfire, begun in 1921, were continued by the 

 writers in 1922. ^ Although such methods have not been perfected as yet, 

 nevertheless some improvements have been made on the methods previ- 

 ously recommended, and by another season of work we have been able to 

 confirm more fully some measures which were recommended, while others 

 have been found to be of less importance. Some further studies have 



1 The first number in the parenthesis refers to the bibliography on page 27 of this bulletin, and 

 the numbers after the colon refer to pages of these publications. 



2 Results of the investigations of 1921 are recorded in Bulletin 203 of the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station. Subsequent to the publication of that bulletin. Chapman has 

 been located at the Connecticut Tobacco Substation in Windsor, but the work has been con- 

 tinued in co-operation between that station and the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. Valuable contributions to our knowledge of wildfire have been made by Clinton 

 and McCormick in Connecticut, and published during the last year as Bulletin 239 of the Con- 

 necticut Agricultural Experiment Station. This bulletin and a number of other important pub- 

 lications on wildfire which have appeared during the last year are freely quoted and referred to 

 here in order that the grower who reads the present bulletin may have the advantage of all that 

 has been learned concerning this problem. 



