167 
1891 and 1802 on the land of S. A. Flemming, further to the cast. These fields were 
visited by the writer this year. They are still infected. Similarly, in L891 and L892, 
the disease was prevalent on the land of .John O'Brion and A. <i. Flemming, near 
Bennehan. In the meantime the disease has spread northwest to Lyons and Knap 
of Keeds, and east to Wilton, and south into Wake County. Recently there has been 
a serious outbreak near Tar River, half of one field being as badly infected as any 
near Creed mo re or Hester. This is conspicuous, as it is a new center of infection 
separated on all sides by considerable distances from other infected soil. 
In regions where the chief money crop ninst be tobacco; where the soil in pre- 
eminently a tobacco soil, the damage wrought by this disease is very great. It <\<»-< 
not take merely an occasional plant, but rather a majority of those in the field. So 
great is the injury that it may be called practically complete destruction of the crop. 
The disease resides in the soil. A field with only a few sick plants one season, on 
the next planting will have many, and another planting in tobacco would mean that 
nearly all of the plants must succumb. The damage, therefore, is not measured 
merely by the loss of one crop. The greatest loss is the permanent injury to the 
soil, prohibiting further culture of tobacco unless some remedy be discovered. This 
depreciation in value is evidenced by a decrease, ranging from 50 to 75 per cent, in 
the selling price or rental of land when it is known to be infected. 
For the sake of clearness I append the following description: 
DESCRIPTION. 
Tlie wilting. — The first indication of the disease is given through the leaves, which 
droop, becoming soft and flabby, as though suffering from want of water. The 
symptom is not accompanied by any change in color, the leaves remaining green for 
some time after the wilt appears. As a rule the lower leaves droop first, the wilting 
gradually proceeding from the ground upward. Frequently the leaves on one side 
of the plant succumb earlier than those on the other side. Some growers believe 
that one side of the plant may occasionally survive to maturity, though the other side 
be wilted, but that is not usual. Frequently even a single leaf will show a one-sided 
infection. The wilted leaves soon die, dry up, and eventually the whole stalk dies. 
It then remains standing, with its dead leaves still hanging. 
The stem. — At the stage of earliest wilting a section across the stem shows a yel- 
lowish discoloration of the woody portion. In more advanced stages, or in sections 
taken lower on the stem, the wood is found either on its inner or outer parts to be 
penetrated longitudinally by black streaks, varying in size from that of a cambric 
needle to that of a knitting needle. These streaks are so abundant in stages immedi- 
ately preceding death that the whole or nearly all of the wood seems to be so affected. 
Frequently similar streaks penetrate the pith, though this is only in the most 
extreme cases. The black streaks in the wood are usually more abundant adjacent 
to the cambium than to the pith, and simply removing the bark from near the base 
of sick plants discloses them in abundance. The blackening often progresses from 
the wood outward through the bark, producing shrunken, blackened patches on the 
surface of the stem. 
In the most advanced stages, when all the leaves are wilting, the wood at the 
base of the plant is blackened nearly throughout the pith, and the decay leaves the 
stem hollow- or filled with the soft rotten remains of the pith. The bark near 
the level of the ground turns black and becomes dry and hard. The pith in the 
upper portion of the plant usually dries up before decay overtakes it. This results 
in the collapse of the upper portion of the plant in irregular longitudinal folds in 
parts where the woody layer is too soft to maintain the shape of the plant when the 
support of the distended pith is withdrawn. If a badly diseased plant be cut off 
near the ground, a dirty yellowish exudate issues from the cut wood, accumulating 
in the lower parts one or two millimeters long. This exudate is slightly viscous, 
hanging together in strands two to four millimeters when picked with a knife. 
The root. — The root seems to be the seat of the original infection, and any plant in 
an advanced stage enough to show symptoms in its foliage will be found to possess 
roots already in an advanced stage of decay. In early stages one root or more may 
be diseased; in later stages all succumb. In the more advanced stages of disease in 
any root the bark is soft and dry, a spongy mass of fiber left by the decay of the more 
watery parts. In the worst cases even this sp< >ngy covering may drop off, leaving the 
wood of the root bare. Usually, however, the bark remains as a spongy layer, sur- 
rounded by a papery jacket more or less cracked transversely, the remains of the epi- 
dermis. The wood of the root undergoes changes similar to those of the stem. In 
the root, as in the stem, the disease manifests itself earlier in the wood than in the 
bark, appearing first as longitudinal streaks of black in that portion of the woody 
