Plant Diseases 
OOJ 
There is another method of producing spores by this 
disease. The same mycelium which produced the other 
spores produces branches of curved spores in very large 
numbers, which are able to germinate and produce the 
disease again very quickly. There is still a third method 
of reproduction. Sometimes the mycelium in the soil 
gives rise to resting spores, which are able to lie dormant 
in the soil during the winter, germinating in spring, and 
forming a mycelium in the soil the hyphae of which may 
penetrate into the young rootlets of Tomatoes, devouring 
the cell contents, afterwards absorbing the walls of 
the cells which lie in their way until they reach the 
stem, where they send out their fruiting branches and 
spores. 
Now as this disease can live in the soil for some time 
before it enters the plant roots, it must draw its food 
from the decaying matter of the soil; therefore it is a 
saprophyte, that is, one that lives on dead matter part 
ol its life, and, of course, when it enters the plant it 
becomes a parasite, one living on living things. From 
what we have just learned about this terrible disease 
we at once see how difficult it is to deal with it, and 
how easily those who do not understand may be mis- 
taken, thinking they have two or three different diseases 
when in reality they have only one. 
There is no known cure for this disease. The seed 
should always be procured from a pure stock, as if the 
seed is saved from diseased plants, though not apparently 
showing the disease, some of the mycelia may be in a 
resting form in the seeds, which will become active with 
the germination of the seed and thus infect the crop. 
