WEATHER CONDITIONS AND CROP DISEASES 
IN TEXAS 
By FREDERICK Н. BLODGETT 
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas 
The local environment under which plants grow is of interest 
to collectors and other students of plant life to a degree varying 
with the particular end in view, or group under observation. For 
the collector, local soil characters and gross moisture conditions 
usually serve sufficiently well to indicate the probable habitat 
in which specimens may be expected. More detail is desirable 
in the forms commonly regarded as more sensitive to substratum 
variations such as mosses and hepatics, but herbarium labels and 
field notes are usually inadequate even in these groups. That 
the distribution of so readily disseminated forms as parasitic fungi 
attacking field crops may also show response to environmental 
conditions of distinctly local character was shown by field obser- 
vations here recorded. 
Following the Gulf storm of August 16 to 20, I9IS, in Texas, 
the damage to the cotton crop by the anthracnose (Glomerella 
Gossypii Edg.) was found to be directly related to the distributions 
of rainfall during the time the storm was passing over the affected 
area of the state. But in this case the relation of environment 
to disease was on a scale of great proportions and was in accordance 
with one's expectation, except as to degree of damage, which could 
not be anticipated. In 1916 there was no such great disturbance 
over the cotton area of the state and local factors were able to act 
more nearly as distinct elements of the environment. The season 
was rather dry than wet, though the drouth was not so severe as 
during the current season. The general condition of the cotton 
crop in Hill County in the central portion of the state (Texas) was 
approximately 80 per cent of normal, the drouth stunting the 
crop to the amount of 20 per cent, considering the general vigor 
of plants and yield of crop together. Five inspections of separate 
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