58 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 393. 



toward the development of a system of 

 plant pathology which will build up and 

 strengthen the science. Recognizing the 

 importance and necessity for the applica- 

 tion of remedial measures in the form of 

 fungicides, to which the foregoing remarks 

 mainly apply, we may turn our attention 

 Irom this art, for so it is, to other methods 

 •of applied work in this particular field of 

 laotany. The future of other lines of ap- 

 plied work all hinges on a recognition of 

 the possibilities within the plant itself, its 

 plasticity and ability to change, the effects 

 of enviromnent and the means of control- 

 ling environment or controlling the plant 

 to meet the requirements of environment, 

 to the end of securing desired results. 

 Here again the breeding of plants will en- 

 ter and furnish the means of overcoming 

 diseases by selection of resistant varieties 

 from those already existing and the crea- 

 tion of new varieties having the desired 

 characteristics. Here, too, arises the ques- 

 tion as to what factors govern resistance 

 to disease, and how these factors may be 

 determined and controlled. Why is it that 

 the most successful production of a plant 

 is often reached when its ability to resist 

 the attacks of organisms or to succumb to 

 functional disorders, is at a minimum, or, 

 expressing it in a somewhat paradoxical 

 way, why is a plant weakest when it is 

 apparently most vigorous? 

 . Proper knowledge on many of the prob- 

 lems involved in the questions here pre- 

 sented will make it possible to apply it in 

 securing crops at far less risk than at pres- 

 ent, and will tend to make the occupation 

 of plant growing less a matter of guess- 

 work than it is now. No rational system 

 of pathology can be developed, further- 

 more, without due attention to proper field 

 hygiene, the rotation of crops, and other 

 similar means of surrounding the plants 

 with healthful conditions. Some of the 

 principal lines of work, therefore, in the 



future, in this field, will be in the direc- 

 tion of giving a broader application to ex- 

 isting knowledge on the question of treat- 

 ing plant diseases by means of fungicides, 

 to the development of new forms better 

 able to resist diseases and suitable for spe- 

 cial conditions, to the handling of plants 

 so as to better adapt them to conditions at 

 the present, and to the improvement of 

 field methods to the end of securing vigor- 

 ous growth by furnisliing conditions need- 

 ful to the highest production of the crop. 



Of the future problems in other lines of 

 applied botany, it is not necessaiy to speak 

 in detail. Suffice it to say, that in the broad 

 field of forestry, agrostology and pharma- 

 cology, systematic botany will always play 

 an important part. In agrostology, espe- 

 cially, which has now come to be understood 

 as covering the study of not only the true 

 grasses, but all forage crops as well, the 

 field for applied work is exceedingly broad. 

 With the rapid settlement of the East and 

 the utilization of our arable Western lands 

 for crops, the areas for the maintenance 

 of stock is becoming less and less. Thus is 

 developed the necessity for a better under- 

 standing of methods of improving and 

 maintaining our pastures. The production 

 of larger quantities of forage from given 

 areas and the improvement of our range 

 lands to the end of enabling them to sup- 

 port an increasing number of cattle, are 

 some of the other important problems in 

 this field. These broad questions will, of 

 course, involve to a certain extent system- 

 atic studies of native floras, the changes 

 which may result from the shifting of 

 plants from one place to another, and the 

 opportunities that may arise from the in- 

 troduction of new forms and the improve- 

 ment of those already present. 



Within the last few years it is fortunate 

 that a well-defined forest policy has been 

 developed, so that in the future the growth 

 of this work will be largely in a distinct 



