Bean Anthracnose 169 



unspotted pods. Harvey (1894) advises this method, and emphasizes 

 the idea that pods showing any evidence of disease, such as pits, discolored 

 patches, and wrinkled or blistered places, should be rejected. Cobb (1894: 

 383) recommends hand-picking the seed in the field, selecting only the 

 healthiest-looking pods. Several others since then have recommended 

 the practice. For several years Whetzel (1908:441) grew clean Black 

 Wax beans that were selected from clean pods, and at a time when anthrac- 

 nose was very prevalent throughout the State. He recommends selecting 

 seed from clean pods, hand-picking them- in the field, and resorting them 

 later. He suggests also that seed from the irrigated regions of the West 

 may possibly be free from the disease. A seedsman in an irrigated section 

 of Colorado declares that he has been able to grow clean plants from 

 diseased seed and could continue the practice without danger of the 

 disease appearing in the field. 



The writer selected seed from clean pods during four consecutive seasons 

 (1908 to 1911), the purpose being to determine whether such seed would 

 produce anthracnose-free plants with ordinary culture, particularly 

 during a wet season, and whether such a method could be recommended 

 as a general farm practice, Since 1911 he has been unable to carry out 

 these trials further, except in a most limited way. 



The seed for these experiments was obtained from pods picked in the 

 field, or in a few cases from the mow. Any seeds showing evidence of 

 anthracnose or blight were rejected. Later the pods were resorted, and, 

 after shelling, the beans also were sorted to remove broken, undersized, 

 or abnormal beans. The seed was then distributed, in lots of about a 

 quart of each variety, to growers and experimenters in this and other States, 

 in order to obtain, in some place at least, good conditions for a test. 

 Those who received the seed were urged to plant it at a distance from 

 other bean patches and to observe the precautions necessary to avoid 

 communication of the disease to this seed patch. 



In these tests extending over a period of four years, twenty-four different 

 plots of beans, containing from one to eight varieties, were grown in various 

 parts of New York State and in a few places outside the State. In five 

 of these plots, there was some anthracnose on a few of the varieties. In 

 all but one of these five cases the infection was slight, and in all cases the 

 inoculum came from a source other than the seed. 



