September 14, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



267 



the same people with themselves, having at 

 some time in the past had but one camp-fire, 

 and it was generally believed that they would 

 show some full-blooda of pure strain. This 

 proved to be a vain hope. On close inquiry 

 all sorts of mixtures were discovered, even 

 among the oldest men and women of the tribe, 

 but no pure-bloods. Only one single woman 

 of middle age was believed to be possibly a full 

 Kickapoo, but there was no real certainty. 

 Some visiting Kickapoo from Mexico proved 

 no better than the rest, and no hope was given 

 that any pure strain Kickapoo could be found 

 anywhere else. 



Thus two tribes, one of which was of 

 considerable importance, may be regarded as 

 lost to science, so far as pure-bloods are con- 

 cerned. Only a few years ago according to 

 local information there were still a number of 

 old men and women living in both tribes who 

 represented the pure strain. The genuine 

 Indian is rapidly passing away and the work 

 of the anthropologist who endeavors to record 

 the physical type of the various tribes is be- 

 coming increasingly difficvilt. 



Ales Hrdlicka 



United States National Museum 



ON A SUDDEN OUTBREAK OF COTTON 

 RUST IN TEXAS 



In Jime 10, 1917, the attention of the writer 

 was called to an outbreak of cotton rust. The 

 specimens were first collected at Mercedes and 

 Edinberg, Texas. A review of the literature 

 seemingly showed that in the United States, 

 the cotton was supposed to be free from rust. 

 The Experiment Station Literature however 

 refers to cotton rust which is not a true rust, 

 but various leaf spots caused by Pseudomonas 

 malvacearum E. S. and Glomerella gossypii 

 (South.) Edg. 



Symptoms. — The disease is characterized by 

 circular spots which vary from one tenth to 

 one quarter of an inch in diameter. The 

 spots, however, are often much larger in size 

 when they appear singly and become consider- 

 ably smaller when many of them occur on the 

 same leaf. The eecia are found to be thickly 

 studded on the spots of the upper part of the 



leaf. The acia are typical of all rusts of this 

 type, and when mature the spores are liberated 

 by the least wind or touch, forming a yellow 

 powder on the leaf. The spores readily ger- 

 minate in water, showing that the rust is a 

 heterojcious species. This same observation 

 was also substantiated by Dr. J. C. Arthur, 

 under correspondence dated July 2, 1917. The 

 disease seems to attack the lower leaves first 

 and especially plants which are well developed 

 and on which cotton bolls have attained con- 

 siderable size. The area of the present in- 

 fection was found to begin at about four miles 

 west of San Eordyce on the Eio Grande, run- 

 ning east about thirty-five miles and extend- 

 ing north and south about fifteen miles. In 

 the Mission Sharyland district the approxi- 

 mate acres devoted to cotton are about 500, 

 while further East several thousands of acres 

 have been put to cotton this season. There 

 were few patches in that area which were not 

 affected with rust. About two or three miles 

 north of Mission the first outbreak was re- 

 ported from the ranch of Mr. Charles Brodgen. 

 Soon other ranchmen reported similar out- 

 breaks of cotton rust. The first infection was 

 noticed immediately after a long rainy spell 

 which lasted about three weeks. The rain 

 consisted of short showers, which kept the air 

 very humid. The disease was more serious on 

 older patches and where irrigation was re- 

 sorted to. Where irrigation and cultivation 

 was slightly neglected infection was found to 

 be very mild. In the same field in those plants 

 which were most protected from either wind 

 or by a top growth infection was heaviest on 

 the lower leaves. Cotton which was planted 

 very close and those plants in the field which 

 made the heaviest growth were also found to 

 be most affected. While infection is confined 

 to the lower leaves, the disease may also be 

 found on the bracts of the bolls. Careful ob- 

 servation so far has not disclosed it on the stem 

 of the cotton plant. 



It does not seem probable that this rust has 

 prevailed to any serious extent in the Cotton 

 States before. Some of the oldest cotton 

 growers of Hidalgo County of Texas claim 

 that from their experience of nearly fifty years 



