62 HISTORY OF PHYTOPATHOLOGY 



period. It was to be the economic period; the period 

 in which the emphasis was to be especially placed upon 

 the control of plant diseases. The importance of this 

 phase of the science had been foreshadowed in the work 

 and investigation of Kuhn. Its importance during the 

 Kiihnian period was overshadowed by the researches 

 and discoveries on the etiologic aspects of the science, 

 as we have already seen. The economic importance of 

 plant diseases became the dominating and vitalizing 

 force in phytopathology during the Millardetian period. 

 To the stimulating influence of the discovery of bordeaux 

 mixture was added in the United States the stimulus of 

 govermnental sanction and support in the establishment 

 in the U. S. Department of Agriculture of the section of 

 Vegetable Pathology referred to above. Govenmiental 

 espousal of scientific investigation always has been, and 

 doubtless will be for many decades to come, based upon 

 the economic value of the same. The etiologic phase of 

 phytopathology which dominated the Kiihnian period 

 had its continuation and perpetuation during the Mil- 

 lardetian period chiefly in the discovery and unfolding 

 of the causal relation of bacteria to plant diseases. While 

 investigation and discovery in the realm of mycologic 

 etiology was not halted or diminished, was, in fact, stim- 

 ulated and expanded, nevertheless progress along these 

 lines contributed largely to and was overshadowed by the 

 progress in the control of the diseases of crops. The 

 influence of bacterio-phytopathology on this progress 

 and expansion was most marked and most healthful. 

 Bacteriologic methods and technic were widely adopted 

 and applied in the study of fungous pathogenes. Thus 

 it appears that these three factors— (a) discovery of the 



