Treatment of Fungous Diseases. 



James Ellis Humphrey, 



Professor of Vegetable Physiology. 



That many of the most destructive diseases of cultivated plants 

 can be and are every year almost completely controlled is a fact per- 

 fectly well known to those who are familiar with the subject, but it 

 has as yet come to be realized by very few, relatively, of those to 

 whom it is of the greatest importance, farmers, gardeners, fruit- 

 growers, florists, amateurs, and others. 



The practicability and great money value of proper treatment in 

 the case of various plant diseases, which, in the absence of such 

 treatment, would reduce the yield of important crops to almost 

 nothing, has already become apparent to some cultivators' who have 

 been progressive enough to try for themselves, or who live near the 

 experimental fields or orchards of Experiment Stations, or of pro- 

 gressive neighbors. The vast majority, however, of those who should 

 be most interested, have been heretofore too indiffei-ent or too skep- 

 tical even to investigate the basis or the very strong and positive 

 statements which have been made concerning the efficacy of preven- 

 tive treatment for fungous diseases of plants. 



This Department has, on all possible occasions, called the atten- 

 tion of those concerned to the facts here stated, and if few have yet 

 availed themselves of its free offers of assistance and of the protec- 

 tion against loss which the}- can secure, the fault and the loss are 

 wholly their own. It is impossible for those who know what can be 

 done to compel others to take advantage of that knowledge, and 

 equally impracticable for the Station to give object lessons in the 

 various parts of the state. There should be, and it is believed that 

 there are, live, enterprising farmers and fruit-growers enough in any 

 part of the state to take up the subject under the direction of this 

 Department, the coming season, and furnish to their respective 

 neighborhoods evidence which shall appeal both to the eye and to the 

 pocket-book, that the modern, scientific treatment of fungous diseases 

 pays. It is one of the special purposes of this Bulletin to induce a 

 number of such persons in each county to communicate early with 



