BULLETIN 
OF THE 
WISCONSIN NATUEAL HISTORY SOCIETY 
Vol. 12 DECEMBER, 1914 Nos. 3 and 4 
PROCEEDINGS 
Milwaukee, Wis., June 26, 1913. 
Regular meeting of the Society. 
President Barth in the chair. Twenty-two persons present. Minutes 
of last meeting read and approved. 
The lecture for the evening was given by Prof. L. R. Jones, Professor of 
Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin, on the subject: ‘Plant 
Diseases; Recent Progress as to their Cause and Control.” 
Professor Jones emphasized the need of a more intensive study of plant 
diseases, especially of the relations between parasite, host and environment. 
Not only should the present conditions of cultivation of the host be studied, 
but its ancestry as well. 
As an illustration of the general problems of plant pathology, an ac- 
count of the cultivation of the potato was given. The potato is found in 
wild state in Central America. Here the processes of the formation of seeds 
and tubers occur at different times of the year. But in our more temperate 
regions, under changed conditions of climate and cultivation, these oppos- 
ing physiological processes taLe place at about the same time. Therefore, 
the plant is, for a period of several weeks — the critical period — rendered 
especially susceptible to disease. It is at this period that most diseases 
strike. The most important future line of work for the control of potato 
diseases lies in the development of disease-resistant varieties. 
At the conclusion of the lecture, Drs. H. H. Severin and G. P. Barth 
remarked on the possible spread of some plant diseases through the agency 
of insects. Professor Jones was thereupon tendered a vote of thanks. 
The president mentioned the great loss suffered by the society through 
the death of three of its members, Prof. I. N. Mitchell, Mr. Thomas J. 
Pereles, and Mr. Frederick Scheiber. He appointed a committee composed 
of Messrs. Graenicher, Teller and Ward, to send suitable letters of condo- 
lence to the families of these former members. 
The secretary read a letter from the President of the Wisconsin Fish 
and Game Protective and Propagation League, in which letter the society 
is urged to use its influence in the passage of game preservation bills that 
are now before the legislative committee. It was voted that members 
should take individual action in regard to those bills. 
The meeting then adjourned. 
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