
536 Report oF THE HorricuLTURIsT OF THE 
neglected with the hope of controlling the disease by means of 
fungicides, first, because treatment with fungicides can not com- 
pletely check the disease after it has once gained a foothold in the 
field nor can it restore the dead; second, because a good stand 
of plants can not be confidently expected from diseased seed. 
It is true that in the experiments here reported, the planis 
treated with Bordeaux mixture gave cleaner and larger yield 
than those from healthy seed, notwithstanding the fact that the 
Bordeaux-treated plants came from diseased seed, that is to say, 
from seed selected because it was diseased. This may be 
accounted for in two ways; first, the healthy seed was planted just 
as selected by ordinary care and when germinated showed at once 
a few plants spotted with the disease, and these diseased plants 
were purposely allowed to remain mixed with the healthy plants — 
to see what difference would appear between the crop from dis- | 
eased and from healthy seed as selected with ordinary care; — 
second, the diseased seed was planted adjacent to the healthy 
seed. Here then were two sources of infection for the healthy 
plants, namely, from a few diseased plants in their own ranks 
and from the many diseased plants in neighboring rows. The 
result was that as the season advanced the healthy plants became 
more and more diseased till finally in yield and vigor they dropped 
behind the diseased plants treated with Bordeaux mixture. Had 
the healthy seed been sorted again carefully before planting, had 
the crop been planted by itself, and had every diseased plant 
been rooted out and carried from the field immediately after the 
plants showed themselves above ground, there is every reason to 
believe that the crop would have been larger and the beans 
cleaner than they were under the “ordinary care” method. The 
data which justifies this opinion are given more fully hereafter, 
See “Selections of Healthy Seed,” p. 546. | 
Where the seed can be secured from a field known to be free 
from the disease it is advisable to de so. If, however, the only 
seed available contains diseased beans, the sound ones only should 
be used for planting. All wrinkled, blistered, spotted beans or 
those with sunken pits or with any discolorations whatever, should 
be rejected. From a badly diseased lot of seed a rigid selection 

