May 1905 ] Suggestions from the Study of Dairy Fungi 117 
May 23, I found one strong- plant of Astragalus lotiflorus 
nebraskensis Bates, the only one found within 30 miles. It was 
well covered with Uromyces astragali, which heretofore has been 
confined in Nebraska to Astragalus mollissimus and adsurgens. 
It is common on the former 30 miles west, but I have not found 
it on that host here, though the host is abundant. I took leaves 
of this, and laid them in among the leaves of A. shortianus 
May 28, and later, with no infection. May 29, I did the same to 
A plattensis and A. crassicarpus, a mile away. June 14, both 
plants were well infected. A. plattensis however carried on the 
disease through the season with more vigor, proving the better 
host. 
Red Cloud, Neb., March 7, 1905. 
SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM THE STUDY OF DAIRY 
FUNGI.* 
CHARLES THOM. 
The importance of certain saprophytic fungi in the arts has 
only begun to be realized in recent years. Nevertheless numer¬ 
ous papers chiefly chemical have already dealt with the effects 
of such organisms upon many organic media. It is when one 
is confronted with one of these problems as a practical proposi¬ 
tion and tries to utilize the results of mycological work already 
published, that he begins to realize the hopeless muddle of our 
present nomenclature and descriptions in certain cosmopolitan 
genera. 
In the beginning of the dairy investigation with which I 
am connected I encountered several problems. Nearly all the 
studies upon milk and milk products have been the work of bac¬ 
teriologists, consequently when dairy fungi have been concerned 
these studies are almost purely physiological. In fact in very 
few cases has sufficient attention been given to the morphology 
of the forms studied to make their identity in any degree certain. 
Similarly a number of chemical investigators have studied the 
effects of fungi upon special media without proper studies of 
morphology. Thus we find a considerable mass of literature 
representing a great deal of work in which the species involved 
can scarcely be determined. So little importance has been at¬ 
tached to species that the author of a recent paper when asked 
for a culture of his organism replied, that any green Penicillium 
would produce the same effects. Nevertheless such wide diver¬ 
gence of results as we find in papers dealing with organisms 
for which the same specific name is used indicates that the 
* Published by permission of the Chief of the Dairy Division of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry. 
