Dout E speertment - We 
THE STORY OF BODGER’! 
For hundreds of years horticulturists have devel- 
oped the China Aster until it is one of the most color- 
ful of the late summer annuals. About twenty years 
ago, however, the disease Aster Wilt became so 
widespread that it threatened the very existence of 
the Aster family. The problem was this: Wilt is caused 
by the fungus Fusarium conglutinans var. Callistephi, 
which lives in the soil. It may be spread by tools, 
water, seed—and it persists almost indefinitely. It 
may be avoided by using soil that has never grown 
Asters before, but this course is usually impractical. 
There is at present no drug or chemical which will 
destroy it. How, then, is Aster Wilt conquered? 
The process developed by Bodger Seeds Ltd. in 
its pioneer work is much like vaccination in human 
beings: Plants are exposed to the Wilt and those 
which survive supply seed for the next generation of | 
test plants. This work is carried on in the Wilt Work- 
shop, a twenty-acre farm staffed by Bodger experts 
which is devoted solely to wilt work and is purposely 
infected with as much wilt as possible. 
The tendency to wilt-resistance can be inherited, 
so the plants grown from the seed produced the 
previous year are quite resistant—but the process 
does not stop there. Many successive generations are 
grown in the Workshop until the best lines have great 
resistance. By means of this technique—survival of 
the fittest—Bodger’s original strains of wilt-resistant 
Asters were developed. 
In all cases it is resistance, not immunity, which is 
developed. The tendency toward resistance is in- 
herited, and will ‘‘breed out'’ if the strain is not 


