COTTON 169 
is literally spotted with bolls that have dropped off. 
This condition possibly should not be called a dis- 
ease, but rather a provision of nature to adjust the 
plants to their environment. When bolls are shed 
it leaves the plant in a better condition to mature 
those bolls that are unaffected. It naturally brings 
up the question, however, as to just where is the 
nice dividing line between full fruiting and over- 
fruiting. 
No treatment for this trouble is suggested further 
than having the soil in such condition that it may 
feed the plants so well as to minimize the evils of 
unfavorable seasons. 
Root Gall:—This disease is located in the roots, 
and its primary cause is the nematode worm which 
lives in the tissue and causes the abnormal growth. 
It is termed a gall. This worm is white or yellow 
in color, and very small and threadlike inform. It 
has been said that each female will lay from one 
hundred to two hundred eggs, and that there may 
be seven or eight generations in a year. It is 
readily seen therefore that their growth and ex- 
tension is rather rapid. From the very nature of 
this disease it appears that this worm must get into 
the soil from affected plants, and hence there is 
practically no way to combat the trouble other than 
by a change of crops, and using care that other im- 
portant areas may not be affected in the same 
way. 
As a matter of fact, the direct damage from this 
root gall is not of so much importance as the in- 
direct damage, in that the nematode in its injury to 
the root prepares the way for the entrance of the 
wilt fungus into the root system. Hence it is that 
the two troubles are often found together, and 
hence it is that many claim that the wilt came only 
