6 BULLETIN 1229, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



as not impossible. The infested patches first seen were close by the 

 outlet of Siltcoos Lake, which lies about 4 miles distant, in the midst 

 of the cultivated area. Diseased cultivated plants might conceivably 

 have gotten into the lake and been carried down the stream. Be- 

 coming stranded, they might then have been blown or otherwise 

 carried to the spots where the disease was observed. The abundance 

 of the disease in remote places and in spots not easily reached in 

 this way, however, would seem to be negative evidence. For ex- 

 ample, a high percentage of diseased plants occurred on a sand hill 

 about 50 feet high which was covered with vegetation. 



In the light of later observations, especially, the possibility of 

 infection having spread from cultivated fields does not seem very 

 great. On the contrary, the results of the survey seemed to indicate 

 that the disease has been present on the wild plants for many years 

 and that it is passing to the cultivated strawberries. The following 

 few cases may be mentioned specifically as apparent illustrations: 



A grower living in Bandon, Oreg., set out young strawberry plants 

 from Portland, where the disease is not known to occur, in the 

 spring of 1920. No trouble was noticed until late in the growing 

 season, when the nematode disease was found affecting a few plants. 

 By October, 1921, 25 per cent of the original plants and quite a 

 number of' young plants started from the old ones were found dis- 

 eased and had been pulled out and burned. The disease was found 

 in abundance on wild strawberries within 50 feet of the cultivated 

 patch and from there on for a distance of 2i miles, which was as far 

 as the search was continued. 



Another grower, living just outside Bandon and within 200 yards 

 of the ocean beach, obtained plants in 1919 from a grower in Bandon. 

 The nematode disease developed quite heavily on this planting the 

 first season, and in 1920 it became so severe that the entire patch was 

 plowed up and planted to other crops. The wild-strawberry plants 

 in the pasture adjoining, and even inside of the fence surrounding 

 this patch, were extensively affected by the nematode disease. A 

 visit to the patch of cultivated strawberries in town from which this 

 planting had been started failed to reveal any evidence of the nema- 

 tode disease among them, nor had the grower ever noticed any 

 malady of the sort. 



Still another grower had in 1919 moved a strain of strawberries 

 from a farm a few miles east of Bandon, where it had been main- 

 tained for eight years without any evidence of the nematode disease, 

 to another farm 44 miles south of Bandon and 1^ miles back from 

 the ocean beach. In 1920, the next season after the strawberries were 

 moved to the new location, a slight amount of injury from the nem- 

 atode disease was noticed, and in 1921, 2 per cent of the plants were 

 rather severely affected. No wild strawberries were known to be near 

 the berry patch east of Bandon, although they were quite numerous 

 in the region of the farm south of town. The nematode disease has 

 been found quite abundantly on wild strawberries at a point 3 miles 

 from this farm. No examinations for the disease on the wild plants 

 have been made closer to the farm than this, though there is every 

 possibility that it does occur on the wild plants very much nearer to 

 this farm. 



Certain unusual observations related to the dissemination of the 

 disease may be worthy of record. A plant of Fragaria chiloen-sis was 



