120 
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
defined diseases of bacterial origin in tomatoes, potatoes, 
melons, oats, com, sorghum, beans, beets, peas, and apples. 
If the science of botany shall reveal the nature of such 
diseases and provide a remedy whereby the life of the plant 
shall be preserved and a decrease in the yield prevented, 
it will surely render a service the value of which it would 
be difficult to estimate. And it is gratifying to know that 
the larger part of what has been accomplished along this 
line has been due to American botanists. 
The botanist has already made it known that the 
"blights," "mildews," "rusts," " smuts," etc., found 
on the various kinds of vegetation are themselves true 
plants, and that they are limited in their development like 
other organic species by certain conditions and surroundings. 
Some of these limitations he has already made known, while 
others remain to be ascertained by him. While the botanist 
has not yet been able to suggest the means of effectually 
destroying in all cases the injurious fungi, yet he has been 
able to make most valuable suggestions whereby much of 
the loss formerly entailed has been very considerably 
reduced. In some cases he already knows how to extermi- 
nate the parasites and in others how to prevent their ravages. 
As to the economic value of what he has already accom- 
plished, take the one subject of oat smut. In a publication 
issued under the authority of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture in 1892, it was estimated that the net 
gain to the farmers of this country between 1880 and 1890 
(from a system of treatment of oat seed now known which 
would have produced a crop free from oat " smut " ) would 
have been not less than $162,000,000. 
One object Mr. Shaw had in establishing a School of 
Botany in connection with the Botanical Gardens was, as 
stated in the will, to promote the application of the science 
of Botany to Arboriculture. The cultivation of trees on 
scientific principles promises to become a matter of great 
economic importance — even to us in the United States. 
At the present rate of consumption, according to the Chief 
