VEGETABLE AND FIELD CROPS 247 



French experts detect the disease first in the spawn as 

 an abnormal, white, fluffy growth. Later the mycehum of 

 the mushroom fails to develop normally, but instead pro- 

 duces monstrous soft growths. Whole clumps develop into 

 moldy masses, which soon putrify with disagreeable odor. 



Infected beds or houses may be abandoned or cleaned 

 thoroughly, then sprayed once or twice with a 2j per cent 

 solution of lysol in water, or with copper sulphate, 1 pound 

 to 15 gallons. 



MUSKMELON 

 See canteloupe. 



ONION 



Smut (Urocystis Cepulce Frost). — As with the wilt of 

 tobacco and cotton, this disease resides in the soil and is 

 therefore destructive not only to the present crop, but is 

 also prohibitive of successful culture of susceptible crops 

 in the future. 



The smut, which seems to have originated upon a wild 

 variety of onion, occurs in both Europe and America. It 

 was known in Connecticut as early as 1860, Massachusetts, 

 Pennsylvania, and Ohio in 1889, later in New York, New 

 Jersey, and Delaware, and has since been recorded from 

 Iowa and Georgia. The first mention of serious loss by 

 onion smut in America was in 1870. Its inroads upon the 

 crop are often such as to prohibit profitable onion culture 

 unless preventive measures are taken against the disease. 



The smut attacks the very young seedlings through the 

 still tender, deUcate leaf sheaths. Onions grown from 

 sets are immune, and onions from seed, if they pass the 



