Soil Sickness Due to Parasites 51 



damage to the root tissue as the female, and its pur- 

 pose in life seems to be only that of fertilizing the 

 female, for after this function has been performed, 

 it is quite probable that the male worm takes no 

 more food. 



Omnivorous Nature of the Eelworm. There are 

 almost five hundred species of plants known to 

 suffer from the eelworm. This number includes 

 all the important families of the flowering plants. 

 According to Bessey 1 the following are among the 

 plants subject to root knot: 



a. Truck Crops. Asparagus, bean, beet, cabbage, 

 carrot, cauliflower, celery, chicory, cucumber, dill, 

 eggplant, endive, gourd, Jerusalem artichoke, leek, let- 

 tuce, muskmelon, mustard, okra, onion, parsley, pars- 

 nip, pea, pepper, potato, pumpkin, radish, rutabaga, 

 salsify, shallot, Spanish oyster plant, spinach, squash, 

 sweet potato, tomato, turnip, watermelon, yam. 



b. Garden Weeds. Birdsfoot trefoil, burdock, car- 

 petweed, dandelion, dead nettle, Florida beggarweed, 

 horse nettle, lamb's-quarters, mayweed, milkweed, 

 nightshade, pigweed, plantain, pokeweed, ribgrass, 

 shepherd 's-purse, sheep sorrel, snow thistle, wild 

 morning-glory. 



From the above large list of susceptible hosts, it 

 is evident that the trucker cannot afford to permit 

 infestation of his land. Once a soil becomes sick 

 because of the presence of eelworm there is very- 

 little range left in the choice of a crop. 



1 Bessey, E. A., U. S. Dept. Agr. Bureau PI. Ind. Bui. 217 : 

 7-89, 1911. 



