INSECTS AND DISEASES 8l 



to prevail. It is not very probable that the germs 

 are carried over in the soil from one season to the 

 next, as the writer has seen fields of cantaloupes 

 entirely destroyed by this disease which were 

 planted on soil which had not grown a crop of can- 

 taloupes for twenty years. Most melon growers 

 are familiar with the characteristic appearance of 

 the disease. As soon as the germs enter the leaf 

 or leaf stem, they multiply very rapidly, until the 

 circulation of sap is cut off by clogging of the water 

 ducts, when that portion of the leaf beyond the 

 point of attack wilts and dies. As stated above, it 

 has been clearly demonstrated that the disease may 

 be spread by means of the striped cucumber beetle, 

 and possibly others. Destruction of the leaf-eating 

 insects, therefore, is the treatment recommended. 

 Fig. 16 shows the effects of this disease in a field 

 of Tip Top melons. 



Bacterial Soft Rot of Muskmelons (Bacillus 

 Melonis, Giddings). Bulletin 148 by N. J. Giddings, 

 Vermont experiment station, treats of a new species 

 of bacillus which attacks the muskmelon, producing 

 a soft rot similar to that of other vegetables, but the 

 organisms differ from the soft rot type Bacillus 

 caratovorns. Wound inoculations in the muskmelon 

 generally gave a complete decay in from three to 

 seven days, but those made upon the broken skin 

 produced no effect whatever. These experiments 

 show that the disease is capable of being communi- 

 cated to a variety of plants through cracks or 

 wounds, but the muskmelon seems to be its favorite 

 host plant. 



As this is liable to become a troublesome disease 

 in other portions of the country, I quote from the 



