102 Report oF DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY OF THE 
of Bacillus carotovorus has been preserved by Professor Jones 
and was available for use in this comparative study. 
Professor F. C. Harrison presented a paper at the Pitts- 
burg meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, entitled ““A preliminary note on a new organ- 
ism producing rot in cauliflower and allied plants,”? in which 
he briefly described the casual organism which he there named 
Bacillus olereaceae. In a later publication’ he gave a very 
full account of the behavior of Bacillus oleraceae on different 
culture media as well as the results of inoculations of pure 
cultures of this bacillus into many of the common vegetables. 
As the result of such inoculations: he reported soft rot being 
reproduced in cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, rutabaga, rape, 
radish, parsnip, carrot, mangel, sugar beet (slight), potato, 
celery, tomato (both ripe and green), artichoke (Jerusalem), 
asparagus, horse radish, rhubarb and onions. When we ap- 
plied to Professor Harrison in 1902 for a culture of Bacillus 
olereaceae he was unable to furnish it because of the loss of 
all of his stock, but we were so fortunate as to obtain an 
authentic culture from one which he had previously furnished 
to Dr. Erwin F. Smith. 
An interesting contribution to this subject was made in 
1902 by Dr. A. Spieckermann™ of the Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station at Minster, Germany. He isolated an organism 
which he found to be able to reproduce a soft rot in a con- 
siderable number of the common vegetables when inoculated 
into them in pure culture. The cultural characteristics of 
this organism differed in some particulars from the ones al- 
ready described by Potter and Jones, being identical, as will 
be shown later, with the organism afterwards found and 
named by Townsend.!* However, Spieckermann did not name 
*Harrison, F. C. Preliminary note on a new organism producing rot in 
cauliflower and allied plants. Science, N. S., 16: 152. 1902. 
“Harrison, F. C. A bacterial disease of cauliflower (Brassica olereaceae) 
and allied plants. Ontario Agr. College Bul. 137. 1904. 
uSpieckermann, A. Beitrag zur Kenntniss der bakteriellen Wundfiulnis 
der Kulturpflanzen. Landw. Jahrb., 31: 155-178. 1902. 
“Townsend, C. O. A soft rot of the calla lily. U.S. Dept. of Agr., B. 
Peaks ul Ag rLO04, 
