DISEASES OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 355 
The blade blight of oats, a bacterial disease, has been found to 
be much influenced if not largely controlled by atmospheric con- 
ditions and perhaps more especially those of the earlier summer. 
These factors have been recently presented bya bulletin of this 
Department (See Bulletin 210). This publication contains a fuller 
table with respect to early summer atmospheric conditions. The 
.development of the Fusarium blight and dry-rot fungus as a wide- 
spread and serious disease of potato plants causing premature dying 
and reduced yields is of interest here. The outbreaks in Europe 
seem to be associated with atmospheric conditions in spring and 
early summer. We need fuller studies on these inter-relations. 
Insistence is here again made upon the observed relations 
between atmospheric conditions and parasitic diseases of plants that 
the grower may be stimulated to greater effort at close observation 
when the need exists and the student may be aided in his interpre- 
tation of the vast array of apparently inconsistent and complex facts 
by which he is to be instructed. 
REMEDIES FOR PLANT DISEASES--FUNGICIDES 
In no other line of applied science has America made more rapid 
progress than in the matter of plant disease remedies. While the 
genera! doctrine of parasitism and the transmission of parasitic 
diseases are thoroughly investigated and widely published in Europe, 
the application of remedies and the interest in disease prevention 
fall much behind the practices in America. Indeed, the writer’s 
attention was in 1908-9 forcibly called to this matter by the statement 
of a prominent American Pathologist as to the relatively great 
advancement in America ove: the old world in this regard. Prob- 
ably this greater progress is due to the greater readiness with 
which Americans engaged in crop production, accept the teachings 
of scientists and make practical applications of the results obtained. 
Among remedies for plant diseases we must include all treat- 
ments which tend to restrict or prevent the recurrence of diseases, 
that is, alltreatments which remedy infections or limit the spread 
of parasitic attack. 
SEED AND SOIL TREATMENT 
Seed and soil treatments naturally belong here; while somewhat 
full discussion has been given on pages 342-345, it is necessary to 
recall the measures employed in seed treatments as well as in 
soil disinfections. In the seed treatments high temperatures, as in 
the hot water, or the application of a germicide as in solutions of 
formaldehyde are applied to the seed grain todestroy adhering 
