New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 249 
POTATO TROUBLES IN NEW YORK IN 1908. 
In 1908 the potato crop in New York behaved strangely. 
In many cases even experienced potato growers were puzzled 
to account for the premature browning and drying of the 
potato foliage. ‘The trouble known as tip burn, in which the 
tips and margins of the leaves become brown and dry, was 
almost universal and, in many fields, very severe. Many per- 
sons mistook this for blight. Both of the real blights, early 
blight and late blight, were scarce. The season was a dry one. 
Undoubtedly, the dry, hot weather was the chief cause of the 
tip burn. In many cases it was aggravated by flea beetles; 
in others, by leaf hoppers and other -insects feeding on the 
foliage. Leaf hoppers were unusually abundant and flea 
beetles, as usual, were destructive in many fields. Bugs were 
not particularly troublesome. 
Karly blight (Alternaria solam) occurred in only a few 
localities and in a mild form. 
Late blight and the rot which follows it appear to have been 
almost entirely absent. Although constantly on the lookout 
for it, the writers did not see a single specimen of Phytophthora 
infestans on potatoes during the past season. However, there 
is evidence that it occurred in at least three places in 
the State—Batavia, Gainesville and Clyde. Prof. H. H. 
Whetzel informs us that he has positive knowledge of its 
occurrence at Batavia. Mr. C. M. Dennis, of Gainesville, 
reports some loss from rot. While this rot may have been 
due to other causes the chances are decidedly in favor of it 
being due to Phytophthora. That the fungus appeared on 
potatoes at Clyde is proven by its occurrence there in a green- 
house on tomatoes which could have contracted the disease in 
but one way, viz., from potato plants beside which the young 
tomato plants stood previous to being transplanted into the 
greenhouse.” - 
December 10, 1908, F. F. Miller, Clyde, N. Y., sent to the Station some 
greenhouse tomatoes affected with an unusual form of rot. After lying in 
& moist chamber for 24 hours some of the fruits developed conidiophores 
