mildews, of our great agricultural crop plants, is only 

 beginning. Such problems as these can only be attacked 

 successfully by the cooperative efforts of both breeders 

 and pathologists. 



As illustrating the great importance to farmers and 

 consumers alike of the diseases of our great cereal crops, 

 we may note that the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 estimates that wheat rust alone in the United States 

 caused a loss of over $20,000,000 in a single year. The 

 losses from dry-rot of corn, which have attracted little 

 attention until recently, are estimated at over $5,000,000 

 for a single year in the state of Illinois. 



Besides the production of immunity, there are other 

 phenomena of disease in plants that will well repay 

 investigation. There are, indeed, reasons for believing 

 that many of the fundamental phenomena of disease 

 processes applicable to all living beings may be studied 

 in plants as readily as, if not more readily than, in 

 human beings. With New York gradually becoming 

 the leading medical center of this country and with 

 the opportunity for medical contributions from the side 

 of botany, it would seem most appropriate for the 

 Botanical Garden to offer the facilities of its unusually 

 large collections for fundamental researches into the 

 problems of disease. 



The extent of our collections offers another reason 

 why the Garden ought to have a pathological staff and 

 equipment and become a center of research on patho- 

 logical problems — it needs to protect itself. In this 

 particular the Garden is confronted with a necessity 

 which is no less an opportunity. Already various of 

 our collections have suffered seriously from disease. 

 To give specific illustrations: Our Rose Garden suffers 

 from black spot; in our dahlia collection each year a 

 number of varieties show disease, due perhaps to the 



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