96 
N. C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
In Florida* tlie loss is very severe and is sometimes complete. In 
South Carolina while crops are frequently destroyed and the lettuce 
industry seriously threatened as is shown in the following quotation 
from a personal letter.f “Several years ago I grew lettuce quite exten¬ 
sively for Northern markets, but had to give it up on account of the 
damping off. * * * Lettuce is not grown here as extensively as 
in former years principally on account of this disease.” 
In Maryland sclerotiniose does damage in many greenhouses.^; 
In Alabama sclerotiniose is reported by Wilcox§ to do much damage 
in those places where lettuce is grown on a large scale. In Auburn 
and Montgomery it is repeatedly met, with great loss. 
In Hew York, some growers, says Stewart** have had considerable 
trouble with the drop. It certainly is one of the troublesome diseases 
of lettuce.” Whetzel, of the same State, says "it (the drop) occurs 
more or less commonly in all greenhouses about this State and some¬ 
times in lettuce fields.” 
. * 
Amount of Damage in Hortii Carolina. 
In Horth Carolina the lettuce “drop” or “damp off” now shows 
itself to greater or less extent at Hew Bern, Wilmington, Maxton, Fay¬ 
etteville, Willard, Kaleigh, and probably at numerous localities where 
lettuce is of less importance. The damage done by it in 1906 is 
variously estimated at 10 per cent., 20 per cent., 33 per cent., 50 per 
cent., and 70 per cent, by different growers. At Fayetteville the dam¬ 
age from this disease is estimated at from 10 to 50 per cent, of the 
total value of the crop. Around Wilmington the loss is placed at 10 
per cent. At Hew Bern estimates vary from 33 1-3 per cent, to 50 
per cent., while at Maxton the loss is placed at 20 per cent. 
The disease sometimes appears the first season the crop is grown 
in a given soil, often not until many crops have been raised. When 
once it does gain a foothold in a bed it persists, multiplies and in¬ 
creases until usually the grower is forced to move the bed to new 
regions, usually to very soon meet again a similar fate. Thus the 
loss to the crop is coupled with the loss attendant upon moving the 
lettuce bed, frames, irrigating, and heating pipes to new land and 
the leaving of the enriched soil to go to a newer and poorer one. 
Cursory Description of Sclerotiniose.. 
The cause of the “drop” is a fungus belonging to the genus Sclero- 
tinia, a genus which is well known on account of its many destructive 
species, among them being two that are particularly conspicuous, one 
causing a serious and widespread apple rot and the other causing one 
of the worst of peach diseases. The fungus is known technically as 
Sclerotinia libertiana FucTcel. It was first described in 1869, and 
bears its present name, libertiana, in honor of Marie Anne Libert 
*Letter from P. H. Rolfs, March 30, 1908. 
tD. T.West, Charleston, S. C., May, 1907. 
fPersonal letter from J. B. S. Norton, December 14, 1906. 
^Personal letter from E. M. Wilcox, March 28, 1908. 
**F. C. Stewait in personal letter, March 30, 1908. 
