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N. C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
J. E. Humphrey 5 in 1892 records a lettuce disease in Massachusetts 
which Smith 4 thought “covers what is now generally known in the 
lettuce district as 'the drop/ ” though there is no real certainty that 
Humphrey had actually to do with sclerotiniose. The only evidence 
that his disease was such is that it occurs in a region where this dis¬ 
ease was subsequently very prevalent, and that his description agrees 
with that of the drop. 
L. H. Bailey 6 in 1895 pictured a lettuce plant which in the picture 
appears to be a typical case of drop. He attributed it to Botrytis, not 
to Sclerotinia, though it is possible that Sclerotinia was present and re¬ 
mained unnoticed. 
A. D. Selby 7 in 1896 mentioned a disease as “lettuce rot” attributing 
it to Botrytis. This may have been a form of drop, and was possibly 
due in part of Sclerotinia , though there is no evidence that anything 
but Botrytis was present. 
G. E. Stone and R. E. Smith 8 in 1897 described a disease which 
they called “the drop” and which they attributed to Botrytis. Though 
from their later paper it seems possible that this early outbreak was 
in part at least due to Sclerotinia. 
In 1898 Stone and Smith 9 and again in 1899 10 refer to an outbreak 
of lettuce “drop,” still attributing it to Botrytis, though it probably 
was in part, even largely, due to Sclerotinia. 
H. Garman in 1899 11 speaks of lettuce rot, which from his descrip¬ 
tion, seems to have been some form of drop. Botrytis and other or¬ 
ganisms were seen, but Sclerotinia was not definitely mentioned. 
True sclerotiniose was mentioned and figured in Hume in 1901. 12 
He then said “within the last few seasons a disease has wrought con¬ 
siderable destruction to the crop. This disease is commonly known 
among the growers as ‘damp off.’ In some cases the attack resulted 
in the total loss of the crop, while in others a loss of from 25 to 50 
per cent, was • suffered.” 
The disease is said by Rolfs in a letter to one of the authors to 
have been severe in the region of Gainesville about 1896, at which 
time a number of fields were almost completely destroyed. 
Ramsey in 1904 13 described a lettuce disease due to the presence 
of Botrytis on the fall crop and a genuine case of sclerotiniose on the 
second crop in later winter. It was clearly characterized by the pres¬ 
ence of cottony mycelium and by sclerotia. 
In north Carolina, the drop, probably in all cases true sclerotiniose, 
first attracted the attention of lettuce growers around Hew Bern in 
1897; at Fayetteville in 1901; at Warsaw in 1902. It was mentioned 
by the senior author of this bulletin in his Annual Report of 1907, 14 
and was the subject of a press bulletin in the same year. 15 
It is briefly referred to by Hutt in a bulletin of the North Carolina 
Department of Agriculture. 16 
Sclerotiniose is now known to occur, as is shown in the accompany¬ 
ing map, in all of the South Atlantic States, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and also in Maine, Vermont, 
Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, 
