THE PRESENT ERA 



The years from 1906 to 1912 mark, in my opinion, the 

 beginning of a new era in the history of plant pathology. 

 During these six years several events of special signifi- 

 cance for the science occurred. These epoch-making 

 events took place chiefly in America, indicating most 

 definitely the transfer of the fate of phytopathologic 

 science from the Old to the New World. Science, like 

 empire, marches ever westward. Of these events, those 

 most significant would seem to be : (a) The establishment 

 of the first chairs of plant pathology in American Univer- 

 sities; (b) the discovery of the cause of crown gall and the 

 beginning of Smith's classic investigations into the simi- 

 larity of this disease to human cancer; (c) the founding of 

 the American Phytopathological Society and its journal, 

 Phytopathology; (d) the enactment of the United States 

 Quarantine Act of 1912; (e) introduction of sulfur as a 

 substitute for copper in fungicides; (J) the development, 

 by selection and breeding, of crops resistant to patho- 

 genes, and (g) the outbreak of the destructive epiphytotic 

 of chestnut blight which is fast wiping out the chestnut 

 in eastern United States. These events constitute a 

 combination as important in their bearing and as far 

 reaching in their efifects upon the science as those in- 

 troducing the Millardetian period. Moreover, the decade 

 from 1900 to 1910 saw the passing away of many of those 

 figures whose personality and work strongly influenced 

 our science during their time— Millardet in 1902, Hartig. 

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