82 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Voi.. XXVII, 1920 
school before reaching the eighth grade and that less than ten per 
cent ever matriculate in a college or university where instruction 
in plant pathology is offered. The grades do not present any of 
the simplest facts of plant diseases, there are no elementary books 
on the subject and the teachers have never received instruction 
in it. High school botany is nearly a thing of the past in Iowa, 
hence the few facts on disease organisms^ that were formerly 
presented in that subject are now in a dormant stage. The people 
who can make the best use of this knowledge do not have the 
facts of plant pathology presented to them so freely as those of 
the other sciences. 
Agricultural colleges seem to be the Mecca for the dissemina- 
tion of the subject. The methods of dissemination which they 
employ seem to fall into four classes which might be designated 
as pedagogic, practical, mediocre and bewildering. 
Pedagogic . — This course connects the laboratory work with 
the text book. It teaches types of comparison, linking this work 
to the previous subjects of botany, chemistry, zoology, and other 
allied sciences. The instructor does not take it for granted that 
every one is to become a specialist but that everyone there desires 
to learn the identification of many disease forms, and also the 
symptomology and controls. The subject matter of this course 
is adapted to the kind of work for which students are fitting 
themselves and to the general mentality. Scientific minutiae like 
the sexuality of the basidiomycetes do not concern this instructor 
and are no part of the course. 
Practical . — In this course, the needs of the students are con- 
sidered first of all and methods may be laid aside. Laboratory 
work may or may not be connected with the text lesson. As one 
professor told the instructor, “Any way to get it across.” 
Mediocre . — Part of the subject matter is practical, some meth- 
ods worth while are employed, a few specimens are shown in 
class. More time is spent on the names of the genera, species, 
cytological structures of host and parasite, together with experi- 
ences of agriculturists. 
Bewildering . — Here the instructor presents such a conglomer- 
ation of scientific classification ; of Latin names of families, genera 
and species; fruiting forms and structures; together with scien- 
tific data, histories and names of investigators, that only a mature 
individual with excellent preparation and superhuman ambition 
for studying can fathom “What it is all about.” It is a kind of 
