136 RErort OF THE BOTANIST OF THB 
ground; also, that air currents affect the distribution of the 
dews; that is, dews are not evaporated as rapidly on the wind- 
ward side of a hill. Although the base of this field is as high as 
any of the fields of the Oneiaa Community Limited yet the land 
adjoining it on the northeast is low and moist. All these condi- 
tions indicated that dews might have had more to do with the 
fostering of the rust than had any other condition, such as culti- 
vation, fertilization, soil conditions and varietal differences, 
which man could furnish. Taking the conditions‘as they were, 
it appeared that dews had been the principal fostering agent in 
the fields of the Oneida Community Limited, the only exception 
being in the case of the new field of Barr’s Mammoth. This field, 
as stated, is about fifty feet above the stream and nearly level. 
In addition it is open to wind currents from all directions. 
The supposition that fogs and dews have more to do with the 
varying conditions found regarding the rusting of asparagus 
fields applies in all cases on Long Island. It is a common occur- 
rence to have a week or ten days during each month of the fall 
on which the sun is not seen until 10 a. m. The low grounds 
always get the larger portion of these fogs. ie 
Although Messrs. Stone and Smith do not state whether the 
fields examined by them were on high or low ground, they give 
the post office address of each locality. A study of the contour 
map of the State of Massachusetts shows that four of these 
localities are less than one hundred feet above sea level; that is, 
they are in sections which are reached by sea fogs, while a fifth 
locality is in the valley of the Connecticut River. From what 
has been observed regarding conditions in this State it would 
seem as if the factor of fogs and dews might play an important 
part in the conditions found in the State of Massachusetts. 
SPRAYING, 
From the fact that all the true rusts which attack plants are 
internal parasites, that is, they grow and develop within the plant 
and do not show themselves on the surface of the plant until 
mature enough to form their spores, writers on plant diseases 
