THE INFLUENCE OF RAINFALL UPON FUNGI 103 



although our rains are quite evenly distributed through the 

 year. 



In New Jersey, and I think Connecticut is not so far 

 away but that it has much the same conditions, we have 

 this tabulation of the rainfall, month by month, during 

 the last ten years. In making up this chart for the state 

 of New Jersey, we have taken the growing season only. 

 This is made up from figures obtained from the state 

 weather service, which has been in operation a good many 

 years and has about fifty observers scattered all through 

 the state. 



The rainfall during the six months of the growing season 

 is shown in the following table : 



Total . 36.87 25.75 21.16 20.85 24.67 24.79 18.83 21.72 30.31 25.16 25.01 



There is a wide range in the amount of rainfall during 

 the six months of the growing season for the last ten years, 

 it varying from 36.87 inches in 1889 to 18.83, or only half 

 as much, in 1895. The table shows that 1897 was next to 

 1889 in precipitation, while the other seven years are not 

 wide from the average. 



In 1889, in August, we had a remarkable outbreak of 

 potato rot, and the growers would say to us: "Come see 

 and look and learn something. Here we have ruin and you 

 had better see it." 



In some of the counties it was ruin. In some places 

 the potatoes were not dug at all, and in others, where they 

 were left in furrows to see how they would behave, the 

 heaps became intolerable. In July, 1897, we had 11.42 

 inches rain, which was a warning to the farmers to get 

 their potatoes out of the ground as quickly as possible. A 

 great many did so, and put them in a cool, dry place. So 

 there was a practical benefit in the information, which, in 

 1897, came in time and was taught from the fatal results 

 in i! 



