1905.] 



Plant Diseases in Germany. 



629 



or capacity of any fruit-grower of average ability, and the 

 marvel is that they are so rarely made, and that men whose 

 existence depends on the correctness of their practice should 

 not adopt the most practical of all methods of obtaining the 

 knowledge which they require — that of ascertaining for them- 

 selves by direct trial what treatment of their crops is the best. 

 Special training, no doubt, is necessary for the execution of 

 elaborate experiments, and special knowledge is necessary to 

 know how far the results can be generalised so as to be appli- 

 cable to other land and circumstances, but the case is quite 

 different when a grower has only to ascertain what treatment 

 succeeds best on his own land. Perhaps the oft-repeated and 

 more often mistaken cry of the antagonism between theory and 

 practice is the reason why growers are so prejudiced against 

 experiments, mistaking experiment for theory and the blind 

 observance of traditions for practice. The spirit of investiga- 

 tion, when properly directed, can never fail to advantage the 

 investigator, and if this spirit could but be developed amongst 

 fruit-growers a mass of observations would soon be collected 

 which, when properly digested, would be of incalculable benefit 

 to the whole industry. 



The Department of Plant Diseases of the German Agri- 

 cultural Society has recently been transferred to an Imperial 

 Institute. In 1889, at the instigation of 



Investigation of Prof Kuhri) of Halle, the German Agri- 

 a lani Diseases in 



Germany. cultural Society resolved to form a section 



which would be concerned with the investi- 

 gation of the diseases and insects that attack crops. By the 

 summer of 1891 the section had established communication with 

 twenty-one local stations distributed throughout Germany. These 

 consisted, for the most part, of the State experimental stations, 

 though some were of a private character. The work of investi- 

 gation and the distribution of information was carried out with- 

 out any subvention from the society. The first report was 

 issued in 1893, an d a volume has appeared annually since that 

 year. The first report contained 106 notices of attack, whereas 

 the number in the twelfth report was 3,904. At the present 



