CHAPTER XXI. 
THE ILLS THAT COTTON IS HEIR TO 
From our general knowledge of diseases it seems 
not unnatural that any plant grown to any extent 
on the same areas year after year, subject to the 
same treatment, living under the same environ- 
ments, should in time be attacked by diseases pe- 
culiar to itself. Doubtless many of our common 
plant diseases have been present for considerable 
periods of time, but have been developed and rec- 
ognized only with the development and application 
of science to agriculture. It is reasonable to sup- 
pose that we have had for sometime many of the 
maladies that now affect cotton. Doubtless many 
of these have been recognized by practical occur- 
rence, but until a pathological study was made they 
were not definitely described and the range and 
extent of their ravages not clearly known. It is 
scarcely correct therefore to say that the common 
maladies of the cotton plant in the United States 
are of recent occurrence; rather they have been 
with us to a greater or less extent for a long time, 
but have become more prevalent in recent years, 
since cotton production has become a more cen- 
tralized industry and its culture more intensive. 
It is natural to suppose that where planted spar- 
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