New YorkK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 17 
to 100 barrels per acre. The results of the experiments were so 
satisfactory that we can unhesitatingly recommend the treatment 
for fields on which smut has caused a loss of as much as one- 
third of the crop. The proper quantity to use appears to be 100 
pounds of sulphur and 50 pounds of lime per acre. It will not do 
to apply the sulphur and lime broadcast, as they seem to have 
no effect upon the smut when applied in that way. The applica- 
tion must be made in the open rows before, or while, sowing the 
seed. 
Plant diseases caused by Rhizoctonia.—Rhizoctonia is a form- 
genus including several species of sterile fungi which cause root- 
rot, stem-rot and damping-off diseases of various cultivated 
plants. In Europe, considerable attention has been given to 
Rhizoctonia diseases, but in this country their investigation has 
been neglected, although it appears that such diseases are com- 
mon here and some of them very destructive. 
This Station, in cod; «ation with the Cornell University A gri- 
cultural Experiment St; tion, has undertaken an exhaustive study 
of Rhizoctonia diseases; A preliminary report of the investiga- 
tions was published as Bulletin 186. 
Fruit-disease survey of Western New York.—In the season of 
1900 the Station made a fruit-disease surveyof Western New York 
similar to the one made in the Hudson Valley in 1899. This survey 
has brought to light several new and important facts concerning 
fruit diseases. Among other things, it has been discovered that 
there exists in this State a destructive raspberry cane-blight 
which is caused by a fungus belonging to the genus Coniothyrium. 
This disease will be made the subject of a i saith investigation 
during the coming season. 
DEPARTMENT OF PNTOMOLOGY. 
The palmer worm.—The life history of this species, Ypsolopus 
pometellus, has been worked out during the past season. Apple 
leaves and young apples constitute the principal food of the 
caterpillars. Although well distributed throughout Western 
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