. BLODGETT: WEATHER AND CROP DISEASES IN TEXAS 15 
fields were made near Hillsboro, at distances varying from one 
half mile to one and one half miles from the starting point; on the 
west of town, 8 per cent of the bolls were found to be spotted with 
anthracnose or bacterial spot (Bacterium malvacearum E. Sm.). In 
fields to the south, east and north of town successively the counts 
rose steadily until the last field inspected showed 26 per cent of 
the bolls (in scattered counts of 100 each) to be spotted. The air- 
line distance from the 8 per cent field to the 26 per cent one was 
perhaps three miles, the general character of the land was level, but 
somewhat broken by shallow erosion washes and depressions, 
irregularly distributed. It was found, however, that the local 
showers, though fewer than usual, commonly were more abundant 
and heavier in precipitation on the east and northeast of the town 
than elsewhere. The high percentages were in the area of the 
more frequent showers, 7. e., of greater local humidity. This 
factor was found active at other points also. 
Not only is the areal distribution of local rainfall important, 
but the periodic recurrence of showers is of consequence also. 
Near Austin, in a field some five miles east of the city, a field was 
inspected on September 4, 1916, and gave a count of 10 spotted 
bolls to the тоо. Оп the 23d the same field showed 28 per cent 
spotted. During the three weeks intervening, several showers 
hàd fallen, but apparently none so heavy as to give a half-inch 
precipitation and conditions were more or less cloudy. This 
favorable weather lasted for about one week with September 15 
as the mean date for the period. The spots in this case were 
almost wholly due to anthracnose. The seasonal distribution of 
rainfall is especially important in the case of cotton anthracnose 
under Texas conditions, where first-class conditions may exist for 
several weeks in the picking season, only to become suddenly 
serious by the disturbance in weather conditions due to some trop- 
ical storm of more or less severity, as in August, 1915 (Galveston 
storm), and August, 1916 (Corpus Christi storm). In the eastern 
cotton states where the normal humidity is greater the degree of 
damage by these storms is probably less through change of humid- 
ity than by mechanical effect of wind and driven rain within the 
actual path of the storm. These factors are effective in Texas 
also,as a matter of course, but then further damage results from 
