New Yorx AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 91 
Valley. On account of the unusually dry season fruits generally 
have suffered less from disease than for several years past. Peach 
leaf-curl, so destructive in 1898, has been almost wholly absent. 
Such common destructive diseases as apple scab, pear scab, pear 
leaf-spot and plum leaf-spot have been injuriously abundant only 
in a few localities. The black rot of grapes and the fruit-rot of 
plums and cherries have been much less destructive than usual. 
The most important fact brought out by this survey is the dis- 
covery that there exists throughout the entire Hudson Valley 
below Albany a destructive cane blight of currants caused by a 
sterile fungus about which but little is known. 
Miscellaneous studies on plant diseases.— In 1898, a serious rot 
of onions occurred in Orange county. It has been determined 
that this rot was caused by bacteria working in the presence of 
water. The prompt removal of surface water from the onion 
fields is probably the best that can be done to prevent the rot. 
Dodder has been found on greenhouse cucumbers and a pow- 
dery mildew on field cucumbers. 
~ The brown sunken spots on Baldwin apples have been shown 
to be of non-parasitic origin. 
A new fungus leaf-spot disease of carnations has been dis- 
covered. 
Unfinished work.— Considerable work has been done upon the 
stem-rot diseases of the carnation, and an investigation of the 
black knot disease of plums and cherries commenced. 
DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY. 
Pasteurization for butter making.— A fundamental investiga- 
tion of this problem has been begun in connection with the Dairy 
Department, the first step being a study of the effect of the vari- 
ous temperatures to which milk can be exposed in the “ continu- 
ous ”’ 
machines. A momentary exposure at 158° F. was not 
found satisfactory; 176° FE. is much better and in many cases 
185° F. is desirable. When the most acceptable temperature is 
