Spraying in 1888 and 1889. 103 



of these experiments have taken the lead in the endeavors to 

 overcome fungi affecting cultivated plants, and they are a record 

 in which may be found the gradually lengthening list of plant 

 diseases which have succumbed. -It is impossible to give the 

 details of the enormous amount of the work done each year, 

 so only the more important contributions will be noted. 



A bulletin of particular value to grape growers was issued by 

 the Agricultural Department in 1888. It records the results of 

 many experiments made in 1887 in the use of the several for- 

 mulas published in Circular No. 3 of the Section of Vegetable 

 Pathology. The downy mildew and the black rot are the two 

 diseases controlled. The Bordeaux mixture proved to be the 

 most satisfactory remedy. 1 



The report of the Section of Vegetable Pathology for 1888, 2 

 Professor B. T. Galloway having been appointed chief of the 

 Section in November, contains a long list of diseases which 

 were studied and treated. Mention is made of various diseases 

 of the grape ; the downy mildew of potatoes ; tomato black-rot, 

 and a form of blight ; brown rot and powdery mildew of cher- 

 ries ; leaf blight and cracking of the pear ; rose-leaf spot ; plum 

 pockets ; apple rusts ; leaf spot of maples ; a sycamore disease ; 

 cot ton wood-leaf rust; peach yellows; and notes on celery-leaf 

 blight. This Jist well represents the energy which was displayed 

 in America in combating all fungous diseases as soon as the 

 proper methods were supplied. The study of fungi was vigor- 

 ously carried on by many investigators, and a firm basis for 

 experimental work was thus established. 



Early in 1889 the same department published a bulletin in 

 which several plant diseases and the methods of their treatment 

 are mentioned. 3 Applications of the sulphide of potassium so- 

 lution, or of modified eau celeste, were advised for the treatment 

 of the apple scab, and the same remedies, or other fungicides 

 then known, were named in connection with apple rust and 

 bitter rot. The black rot of grapes was successfully treated in 

 1888 by Colonel A. W. Pearson, Vineland, N.J., who made 

 experiments under the direction of the commissioner of agri- 



1 Scribner, U. S. Depl. Agric. Bot. Div. Bull. 5. 



2 Ann. Eept. U. S. Com. Agric. 1888, 32^404. 



3 Galloway, U. 8. 2>ept. Agric. Bot. Div. Bull. 8, 45-67. 



