,piant Sanitation. 



428 



[November, 1911. 



research Mycologist on the Staff of the 

 Royal Botauie Gardens, Kew. One of 

 the first countries in which prominence 

 was given by the Government to the 

 ractical application of mycological 

 nowledge would appear to have been 

 the United States. For the last thirty 

 years this country has been employing 

 an eVer-increasing number of plaut 

 pathologists in connection with the 

 Department of Agriculture of the 

 Federal Government ; while at the pre- 

 sent time almost every State Experi- 

 ment Station, supported largely from 

 the funds of that State, has one or more 

 Mycologists on its staff. 



When the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture was founded in 1898, it soon 

 became evident that officers capable of 

 dealing with the pests and diseases of 

 plants were urgently needed, and this 

 was well emphasized by the pievalent 

 diseases of the sugar-cane. About the 

 same time it became necessary to ap 

 point a Mycologist on the Staff of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya in 

 Ceylon, and at the present time almost 

 every Government Department of Agri- 

 culture in the British Empire employs 

 one or more such officers. In India, not 

 only is there an Imperial Mycologist to 

 the Government of India, aided by an 

 assistant Mycologist and several research 

 students, but one at least of the Presi- 

 dencies, Madras, has its own officer. 

 Instances of the employment of Govern- 

 ment Mycologists could be added from 

 all parts of the world. 



These Departments of Agriculture 

 bring about the dissemination of what 

 is known in connection with fungi in 

 twc ways. They work directly through 

 the association with planters of the 

 scientific officers on their staffs, and in- 

 directly by means of the publications ; 

 while at the same time, owing to their 

 connection with the Government, they 

 are able to introduce the teaching of the 

 requisite scientific knowledge into the 

 curricula of the schools. This last point 

 serves to emphasize tho importance that 

 attaches to the connection of scientific 

 knowledge with so thorough an instru- 

 ment for inducing its spread as is pro- 

 vided in the form of the various Govern- 

 ments. 



Further valuable assistance in the 

 protection of plants from disease is 

 rendered by Governments through the 

 legislation which they are empowered 

 to enact. S'jch legislation can prevent 

 the importation, into any given country, 

 of diseases likely to cause serious damage 

 to its crops. At the same time it can 

 enforee, it' necessary, the adoption of 

 adequate measures for eliminating or 



eradicating the more serious diseases 

 which do exist. In both these cases the 

 technical knowledge of the scientist 

 is necessary, though this alone is power- 

 less without the aid of the Government 

 machinery for enforcing the necessary 

 measures, and without the general 

 appreciation of the reasonableness and 

 wisdom of the measures on the part of 

 the community. 



The recognition of the importance of 

 mycology on the part of Governments 

 has been followed by similar recognition 

 on that of the general public. As a 

 consequence of this, there exist to-day 

 several associations of planters, and 

 more than one private company engaged 

 in agriculture, who maintain a scientific 

 staff, including a plant pathologist, at 

 their own expense. The Hawaiian Sugar 

 Planters' Associations may be cited as 

 an instance of this. Moreover, the 

 tendency on the part of private com- 

 panies to employ their own Mycologist 

 is distinctly increasing. This tendency, 

 although a step in the right direction, is 

 not to be advocated without quali- 

 fication. There is considerable proba- 

 bility that the money necessary would be 

 much better spent iu contributing to the 

 maintenance of a large number of such 

 officers on the staffs of the various 

 Government Departments. There are 

 several reasons for this. In the first 

 place, it is far easier to work in a large 

 and properly-equipped central labor- 

 atory than in small isolated ones. At the 

 same time the work receives material 

 assistance from the concentration of 

 effort, the free access to literature from 

 all parts of the world, containing inform- 

 ation on mycological subjects, and the 

 sympathetic intercourse between men 

 engaged in similar study, all of which 

 are only obtainable at a central labor- 

 atory. 



The increasing demand for plant 

 pathologists makes it important that 

 some sufficient means should be found 

 for supplying properly trained men, and 

 in this it would be of great assistance if 

 the universities would provide adequate 

 courses of instruction, not only in the 

 methods of mycology and in those of its 

 application, but also in general tropical 

 agriculture. The demand for such men 

 will, in course of time, become limited, 

 but it will always be constant. Such a 

 training might with advantage be follow- 

 ed by a year's research work at the 

 laboratory of one of the tropical Depart- 

 ments of Agriculture. Facilities for 

 this exist at Pusa, in India, and also in 

 Ceylon and Java for the East, and in 

 the Imperial Department of Agriculture 

 for the West. 



