26 



HANDBOOK OF CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURE. 



repute or appearance would indicate special value for use in 

 pastures, meadows, or lawns. He thus visited some of the 

 best grazing districts of Connecticut and Rhode Island, Penn- 

 sylvania, various Southern, Central, and Pacific States, Great 

 Britain, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, France, Hawaii, and 

 Australia, and through correspondents received sods from 

 other States and countries. It being impossible to care for 

 these collections at the station, where the soil is not adapted 

 to grass, Mr. Olcott undertook to transplant the most prom- 

 ising grasses to favorable ground on his farm, near South Man- 

 chester. Since 1890 Mr. Olcott has devoted himself untiring- 

 ly to the care of the South Manchester grass garden of about 

 two acres area, where he has had growing in pure cultures 

 3,022 distinct grass plats, comprising 600 sods from station 

 grounds at New Haven, 793 sods collected in the United 

 States, 1,005 from Europe, 125 from Australia and the Ha- 

 waiian Islands, 250 miscellaneous, and 250 plats from trade 

 seeds. Of these 1,500 are now under observation and about 

 the same number have been destroyed as inferior or unfit for 

 culture. 



An important investigation has been the study of the 

 vegetable proteids, on which Dr. Osborne, with an assistant, 

 has been continuously engaged for eight years. Subjects of 

 this investigation have been mostly seeds. These results, 

 though mostly technical, have already found application in 

 the manufacture of flour. 



The organism causing the scab of potatoes (Oospora 

 scabies) was isolated and described at this station by Dr. 

 Roland Thaxter. A new species of Phytophthora has been 

 described, which has caused extensive damage to Lima beans. 

 The methods of infection have been studied and preventive 

 measures suggested. A considerable number of new species 

 of fungi of less economic importance have also been de- 

 scribed. 



The nature and cause of "pole burn," a very destructive 

 disease to which leaf tobacco is liable while curing, and its 



