102 DISEASES OF GINSENG. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

 DISEASES OF QINSENQ. 



How Do The Fungi That Cause Diseases In Ginseng 

 Find Their Way Into The Garden? 



(BY PROF. H. H. WHETZEL.) 



This question, in one fonn or another, has been asked by 

 every grower of ginseng wlien he found sonae disease playing 

 havoc with his plants. It is asked by the prospective grower who 

 looks forward to keeping these parasites out of his plantings. 

 The question is far more easily asked than answered. Fungous 

 parasites of other plants are disseminated in many different ways, 

 and it is reasonable to suppose that the fungi infesting ginseng may 

 also be distributed in some of these ways. Yet positive proofs, as 

 to just how any one of the different ginseng pests find their way 

 into the ginseng garden, are, so far as I know, entirely wanting. 



In the case of a number of the common diseases of other 

 plants, it is now well known that the casual parasite is carried 

 over winter and distributed in or on the seed of the host plant, as 

 for example, the anthracnose, or pod spot, of beans, loose smut of 

 wheat, potato late blight (in the tubers), etc. In some of my pre- 

 vious publications on ginseng diseases, I have su£ Rested the possi- 

 bility that the Alternaiia Blight of Ginseng might also be thus 

 disseminated. Of some twenty diseases of ginseng which I have 

 thus far studied, this is the only one that I have any reason to 

 believe might thus be sometimes introduced into new plantings. 

 When I first studied the blast of the seed heads caused by the Al- 



