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L1BR A R Y 



iNL&ERJMJ'ECORD 



BLUE 

 CONTROL 



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AWI-77 Issued November 1943 



U. S. DEPARTMENT of AGRICULTURE 



CONTROLLING plant diseases pre- 

 vents losses in crops and money and 

 also conserves the manpower, time, and 

 effort otherwise wasted when diseased crops 

 fail to bring returns. Blue mold (see cover 

 illustration) is an outstanding disease prob- 

 lem throughout the flue-cured tobacco 

 area. It attacks the plants in the seedbed 

 and may weaken them and delay trans- 

 planting, or kill the plants outright. 



Prevent Plant Loss 



In 1942 many tobacco growers lost a 

 large part of their plants from a combination 

 of frost and blue mold. Most serious dam- 

 age occurred in Georgia, where 80 percent 

 of the plants were killed, but the situation 

 was more or less critical throughout South 

 Carolina and North Carolina and in some 

 parts of Virginia and Tennessee. Plant-bed 

 tests in all flue-cured tobacco areas showed 

 that it is practicable to protect plants 

 effectively from both frost and blue mold 

 damage. 



Sow at Proper Time 



Many growers still attempt to evade blue 

 mold by the early sowing of very large bed 



Prepared by 



E. E. Clayton, Senior Pathologist 



Division of Tobacco Investigations 



Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and 



Agricultural Engineering 



Agricultural Research Administration 



U. S. Department of Agriculture 



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