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remained in the soil in viable condition for eight years without a suitable 

 host in the meantime, and the extent to which rotation of crops serves 

 to check the disease is yet uncertain. The disease-resistant varieties of 

 melon so far provided do not equal the others in flavor, so say our In- 

 diana growers, and are consequently not much used. It is, therefore, still 

 a large problem for the plant pathologist to find means for protecting 

 the melon crop and others of like nature from the attack of such destruc- 

 tive germs. 



A similar disease of the tomato has been very injurious at times in 

 Indiana. Mr. TV. H. Dyer of Vincennes reports a loss during the one 

 season of 1913 of 6,000 bushels of fruit, some thirty acres of his field being 

 entirely destroyed by tbe Fusarium wilt. Other soil diseases, like leaf 

 spot, fruit rot, etc., also prove destructive at times. 



Some of the leaf diseases of potato may be checked by spraying with 

 Bordeaux mixture, while for scab on the tubers a serviceable and practical 

 remedy is known in formaldehyde, showing that some good work has been 

 accomplished along this line. But there are a number of otber diseases, 

 often causing heavy loss, that are little understood, and whose metbod of 

 control is yet to be discovered. Mr. W. A. Orton of tbe United States 

 Department of Agriculture stated recently before the Wisconsin Potato 

 Growers' Association that six million dollars were lost to .the country 

 during the present year of 1914 from potato diseases. 



There are a number of damping-off diseases to be classed here. They 

 attack the young plants and cause them to die before becoming established. 

 In the field the disease will spread from plant to plant over large areas. 

 One season a field of beets was reported as largely destroyed in this way. 

 But it is in cutting beds and seed beds under glass where such ravages 

 are most marked. 



The growing of vegetables under glass has become a large industry 

 in Indiana. It is a kind of intensive culture where every individual plant 

 bears an important relation to the final profits. Complaints are frequently 

 received of losses in the cucumber and lettuce crops, which prove to be 

 due to tbe inroads of the fungus, Sclerotinia Jibertiana. sometimes called 

 lettuce-drop. 



These diseases, and many similar ones are believed to be harbored in 

 the soil from year to year, and in some cases to be carried from crop to 

 crop by the seed, and possibly by other yet undetected means. How 

 many kinds of germs are concerned in such diseases is not yet known. 



