126 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Spread through the Manure Pile. — Barnyard manure 

 always contains a great variety of organisms, most of which are 

 harmless to plants. Occasionally, however, some parasite gets 

 into the manure heap, finds a congenial place for extended growth, 

 and is finally hauled out by the unsuspecting cultivator and put 

 just where it can do him the most damage. Sometimes the spores 

 of these parasites get in through the fodder or bedding, but they 

 are also probably occasionally introduced along with mouldy or 

 rotting vegetables which have been thoughtlessly thrown into 

 the barn yard or on to the manure pile. One of the most strik- 

 ing cases that has come under my own observation is worth de- 

 scribing somewhat in detail. 



The Watermelon Wilt. — This disease of the watermelon is due 

 to a fungus (Fusarium nioeum) which enters the plant through 

 the soil and fills up its water-conducting system, causing sudden 

 wilt and subsequent death. It prevails extensively from South 

 Carolina to Texas, and is by far the worst trouble melon growers 

 have to contend with. The fungus lives over winter in the dead 

 stems, and grows readily in manure. In 1894 I was sent to South 

 Carolina to investigate this disease, at the urgent request of a 

 planter who had lost nearly his whole crop. Nothing was then 

 known as to the cause of the disease, and the conclusions 1 shall 

 here give you are based on studies of the disease which have since 

 been made in the laboratory and field. T'he man of whom I speak 

 had planted seventy acres, and nearly the whole crop was affected 

 by this disease, just that part of the field being most severely 

 attacked that had been most carefully manured. He had for- 

 merly been a very successful melon grower, but had suffered 

 some from this disease the preceding year. In order to have an 

 extra fine crop, by way of compensation for losses of the pre- 

 vious year, he had raked and scraped every bit of litter lie 

 could procure from the whole farm, and made a large compost 

 heap in his barnyard. Into this heap went also the refuse of a 

 thirty-five acre melon field of the preceding year. This consisted 

 principally of hay cut from the field in the fall, and including 

 many dry melon vines full of the fungus, which only needed the 

 moisture and food supply of the dung heap to grow again luxuri- 

 antly. In the spring, when he had unwittingly made an immense 

 culture bed of his barnyard, he hauled out this infected manure 

 and put it under his melon hills, with most disastrous results. I 



