~546 Report oF THE HortTIcuLTURIST OF THE 
“untreated plants. The reason why the latter class is credited 
with the larger total yield in column II is plainly because a much — 
better stand of plants was secured as shown by column I. 
It appears that in all these experiments the hot water treat- 
ment has given better results than treatment with any other 
fungicide used in soaking the seed. The important fact to notice 
is that the untreated seed gives a greater yield of marketable 
beans than do any plots of the treated seed. This is not because 
plants from untreated seed were any less diseased but because 
ithey gave a-better stand of plants. Even when the treatment of — 
tthe seed by the best fungicides is so severe that the stand is 
‘seriously injured there remains enough of the disease to injure 
the crop under field conditions. At the time of harvesting the 
‘crop in the above noted experiments not a sound plant or even 
4 sound pod was found in the whole lot. These results certainly 
‘give little encouragement for hope that treatment of seed with 
fungicides will yield sufficiently good results to justify recom 
mending its adoption. It should be noted, however, that with 
plants grown indoors for twenty-four days Dr. Halsted found * 
beneficial results from soaking seed for two hours in ammoniacal 
solution of copper carbonate five times the strength used in the 
greenhouse experiment reported above. He reports that one- 
fifth of the plants from treated seed were affected by the disease 
and these but slightly, while nearly one-half the plamts from 
untreated seed were badly affected. Sixty per cent. of the seeds 
germinated in each lot. 
SELECTION OF HEALTHY SEED.— One experimentwas conducted in 
order to compare plants from healthy seed with plants from dis-* 
eased seed. The so-called healthy seed really contained some 
affected beans, as was apparent when they germinated. The sort- 
ing of the seed was not done personally and though must of the 
seed was healthy, yet a second sorting with vreat care would have 
discovered other imperfect specimens. This seed was planted in 
two equal areas, and the adjacent groun on one side of each area 
was planted with diseased seed of the same variety obtained from 
the same source. The soil was uniform in character for both classes 
* Annual Report of New Jersey Experiment Station, 1891, p. 286. 
