Tebroaey 1, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



111 



the gift it ought to be a genuine pleasure 

 and satisfaction. 



Second, on a purely selfish basis. Like 

 practically all other sciences, botany has 

 now reached a stage where further advance 

 is largely dependent upon laboratories and 

 a more or less elaborate and expensive 

 equipment, including library facilities, 

 costly apparatus and laboratorj' assistants. 

 The time has passed when board and room 

 and traveling expenses are enough. 'Tis 

 money makes the mare go, in botany as else- 

 where, but until the millenium has less the 

 appearance of being viewed through the 

 little end of the telescope, botanists will be 

 dependent upon outside sources for ade- 

 quate financial support. But such sources 

 will fail, or continue wholly inadequate, as 

 now, so long as the dwellers outside the 

 walls have no livelj' appreciation of the 

 fact that money needs science just as truly 

 as science needs money. 



Only a few months ago an attempt was 

 made by the speaker to enlist the interest 

 of certain seedsmen and nurserymen in 

 furthering research in plant diseases. Let- 

 ters were sent to various firms and individ- 

 uals whose interest in such a proposition 

 was mainly taken for granted. These let- 

 ters contained the following statement: 



The importance of increasing our knowledge of 

 the causes and prevention of plant diseases is evi- 

 dent to every one who is interested in growing 

 plants on a large scale. An enormous amount of 

 investigation is now in progress in this country, 

 along this line, but it is obvious that an oppor- 

 tunity for the prompt publication of the results 

 of these investigations is essential to progress. 

 Opportunities for such publication are, at pres- 

 ent, very limited, and practically without any 

 financial backing, except for the publications of 

 the federal and state government. The latter pub- 

 lications are open only to officials, and are far 

 from equal to the demand. WUl your firm not be 

 willing to give this matter serious consideration, 

 and grant a personal interview between the under- 

 signed and some member of your firmt 



The following reply was received : 



Dear Sir: Your favor of the 29th inst. duly 

 received. In reply thereto would say that, while 

 we realize the importance of the work you are in- 

 terested in, yet we feel, from a business stand- 

 point, that the burden of such work should not 

 fall upon us or similar houses. We take every 

 precaution (sic) to keep stock healthy and true to 

 type. We are satisfied that a great deal of the 

 disease is due to improper cultivation, and when 

 proper conditions of growth are supplied, disease 

 is very rarely to be met with. Of course, un- 

 favorable seasons wUl occur; conditions wiU arise 

 which are absolutely beyond the control of the 

 cultivator; but we are satisfied that no amount of 

 investigation as to the causes of disease affecting 

 field crops can ever result in avoiding it. (Italics 

 mine.) We feel it will be unnecessary for you 

 to come in to talk to us on the subject, as we are 

 satisfied that nothing could be achieved thereby I 



Hope springs eternal in the human 

 breast, and so I attacked the enemy's sa- 

 lient with a little asphyxiating gas, as fol- 

 lows: 



Such a view (as yours) is diametrically opposed 

 to the results of the investigations on plant dis- 

 eases carried on in nearly every civilized country 

 during the past twenty-five to thirty years. Of 

 course proper cultivation is always essential to the 

 health and success of our crops, but these re- 

 searches have yielded an abundance of positive 

 evidence that most plant diseases, like many hu- 

 man diseases, are contagious, being caused by 

 bacterial and fungous parasites, or by insects, 

 and are, in very many eases, subject to control, or 

 at least to remedial treatment, which is a matter 

 quite apart from proper or improper cultivation. 



May I not cite such well-known cases as the 

 wheat rust, which caused a loss of $67,000,000 in 

 the United States in 1891 ; the oat smut, which 

 caused a loss of over $13,000,000 in the state of 

 Wisconsin alone in 1901-13; the late blight of 

 potatoes, which caused a loss of $10,000,000 in the 

 state of New York in the one year of 1904, the 

 black rot of cabbage (loss $50,000 in Wisconsin 

 in 1896) ; and the leaf spot of violets (loss $200,- 

 000 in the United States in 1900). 



Each of the above diseases is perfectly well 

 known to be caused by a parasitic fungus, and 

 remedial measures, which a knowledge of the na- 

 ture and cause of the disease has made it possible 



