4IO GENERAL PLANT PATHOLOGY 



determined. Extension and the work of prevention can be carried on. 

 Cooperative work with the progressive farmers and horticulturists can 

 be inaugurated with profit to the farmer and the investigator. The 

 etiology of diseases can be investigated by properly directed field experi- 

 ments. Inoculations can be made on plants growing in the field, or in 

 the laboratory or greenhouse.^ Such original investigation presup- 

 poses the accumulation of apparatus and a suitable working library. 

 With the limited appropriation available for the purchase of apparatus 

 and books, such an equipment seems beyond the ordinary school and 

 college, but it will be surprising to those who have not tried the plan how 

 many books, diagrams, etc., can be accumulated, and how much 

 apparatus can be secured by spreading the purchase of such needful 

 things over a series of years. If the books and apparatus are cared for, 

 little deterioration need be suffered and at the end of twenty or twenty- 

 five years, a respectable stock of these desiderata will be on hand for use 

 in the class room, laboratory, research rooms and greenhouses. 



The growth of the study of plant pathology as a distinct branch 

 of science has been by leaps and bounds. It is now on a more satisfac- 

 tory basis than ever before, and a larger number of men and women are 

 directing their attention to phytopathology as a life work. The men 

 who enter this field from now on must have a better and an all-sided 

 training. This presupposes an acquaintance with the literature of the 

 subject in his own and several foreign languages. There should also be a 

 training in chemistry and physics. He should know something about 

 zoology and should be conversant with the physiology and histology of 

 plants and other phases of botanic inquiry. To meet this demand our 

 American colleges and universities have introduced subjects which will 

 be of direct benefit to the future plant pathologist. The curricula^ 

 have been arranged to introduce the study, hot only of plant pathology, 

 but also cognate subjects some of which may not have a direct bearing, 

 but which make the man a well-trained and a competent "plant 

 doctor." 



iC/. Heald, F. D.: Field Work in Plant Pathology. The Plant World, lo: 

 104-109, May, 1907. 



2 Fink, Bruce: A College Course in Plant Pathology. Phytopathology, II: 

 150-152, August, 1912. Consult Stevens, F. L.: Problems of Plant Pathology, 

 The Botanical Gazette, Ixiii: 297-306, Apr., 191 7; also Harshberger, John 

 W. : The Need of Competent Plant Doctors, Education, 1895, 140-144. 



