February, ’24] Glasgow & gloyer: mercuric treatment for cabbage 
97 
Several methods were tried out in this particular case, but only the 
cheesecloth screen, tobacco dust and mercuric-chloride plats will be con¬ 
sidered as the others have no particular significance in this connection. 
The cheesecloth used for the screen was of a moderately coarse weave, 
averaging about 24 threads to the inch; the tobacco dust was a finely 
ground product, from 150 to 200 mesh, and containing one-percent 
nicotine; while the mercuric chloride was used at the rate of one ounce to 
ten gallons of water which gave a dilution of approximately 1-1200. 
The screen was applied about the time the young plants commenced to 
appear thru the ground and remained in place until shortly before 
transplanting. The tobacco dust and the bichloride solution were 
used at the rate of approximately one pound and one gallon respectively 
to thirty feet of row. 
As may be seen from the results summarized in this table, even one 
application of the bichloride solution appears to have greatly decreased 
the number of diseased plants, while two or three successive applica¬ 
tions reduced it to negligible proportions. 
Tobacco dust, on the other hand, resulted in a tremendous increase 
in the infection not only as to the number of plants attacked, but under 
this treatment the lesions were much more pronounced than on the 
checks. The plants from this plat were characterized by the presence of 
abnormally large Sclerotia which in many cases completely encircled the 
stem. The Sclerotia were comparatively small or entirely absent on the 
check plants. Other characteristics of the tobacco-dust plats were the 
presence of a heavy weft of mycelium in the soil immediately about the 
plants and rather extensive edematous areas on the stems of many of the 
plants where the fungus was still active. These were also present in the 
check plats but to a much less degree, and were notably absent where the 
mercuric chloride solution had been used. It is evident that heavy 
applications of tobacco dust supply a medium in which Rhizoctonia and 
perhaps other parasitic fungi may develop much more readily than in 
untreated soils. It should be noted in this connection, however, that 
under ordinary conditions such applications stimulate the growth of the 
seedlings very appreciably and result in plants superior in size and 
quality to those produced by any other method. 
In the screened plat the plants at the time of transplanting, should 
have been a week or more ahead of those grown in the open. For a time 
they did make a much more vigorous growth, but owing to the more 
favorable conditions for the development of the fungus beneath the 
screen this advantage was lost by the time the plants were one-half or 
