62 
PLANT DISEASES. 
the bulk of disease affecting economic plants being mainly due to 
the attacks of fungi, insects, or bacteria. 
Realizing the importance of tracing the cause of disease by 
exact scientific methods, with the object of successfully combatting 
the same, State aid has been rendered in several European coun- 
tries ; special laboratories have been constructed and placed under 
the charge of trained scientific men, whose entire time is devoted 
to the investigation of those diseases most prevalent in their 
respective countries. Already the outcome of this line of action 
has resulted in the publication of an enormous amount of informa- 
tion, the most successful portion of which up to the present deals 
with the cause rather than the cure. Yet this is what should be; 
we cannot by any exact method cure a disease, the cause of which 
is unknown. 
France, Germany, and Italy can boast of possessing the above 
advantages, and may well be proud of the very excellent text- 
books and periodicals dealing with the subject. 
The most extensive researches, however, in connection with this 
subject are carried on in the United States of America, where, 
under the direction of the Department of Agriculture, numerous 
laboratories and experiment stations are scattered throughout the 
country, the work being carried on under the supervision of a con- 
siderable number of skilled specialists ; and although there is 
evidence of external pressure over which the author has no control 
in the premature production of some of the reports, yet on the 
whole the enormous amount of solid information contained in the 
published accounts of investigations, some of which have extended 
over several years, speak highly for all concerned, and although the 
results from the ultimate object in view may in the opinion of some 
not justify a continuation of the work, yet there can be only 
one possible outcome from such an accumulation of exact in- 
vestigations, and we sincerely hope that no party feeling will at 
any time be sufficiently powerful to cripple in the least degree the 
work which must eventually compel the whole world to admit 
their indebtedness to the United States. 
The following extracts will indicate the line of work carried on, 
which, after being worked out on scientific principles, is couched in 
language simple and intelligible to those for whom it is intended. 
Experiments in the Treatment of Rusts Affecting Wheat 
and Other Cereals.* 
By T. B. Galloway. 
Introduction. 
No plant diseases have attracted as widespread attention as the 
rusts of cereals. For more than a hundred years scientists and 
practical men all over the world have made these parasites the 
subject of study and thought, but as yet nothing definite is known 
as regards a practical and efficient means of preventing them. At 
* “ Journ. Mycol.,” Yol. viii., No. 3 
