CROP LOSSES. 
The crop: loss estimate was the first project undertaken by the War 
Emergency Board. Such an estimate is necessary before undertaking 
district projects, as it enables one to see what is the relative importance 
of the various diseases, to what extent they will afford opportunity for 
co-operative work, z.e., whether they are local or general in distribution, 
and to what extent experiment or research is necessary in connexion with 
their control. 
Although there is a Bureau of Crop Estimates in the United States 
of America, the necessary data were obtained from replies to many 
letters and circulars, and from consultations with many plant -patho- 
logists. The estimates were prepared for each State, and a preliminary 
set of figures for the staple crops for the whole of the United States 
of America was submitted to very careful consideration and revision 
before a final set was arrived at. 
Our own statistics of cereals, fruit, potatoes, &e., are prepared by 
the statistician on various estimates submitted from numerous sources 
and from whatever returns are available, and are revised’ from time to 
time, and finally checked as accurately as possible by the results recorded. 
In the first place, however, the figures supplied are not the result of 
measurement; as a rule, and too many things are given under one head- 
ing. They are not sufficiently explicit, not adequate for the purposes 
required, nor available at a sufficiently early date to be of much value 
to plant pathologists. In preparing a census of diseases and crop losses 
assistance could be given by agricultural and fruit inspectors, secretaries 
of agricultural bureaux, experiment farm managers, and experi- 
mentalists, fruit-growers’ and farmers’ associations, &c., with the 
co-operation of the Agricultural Department of each State. At the 
same time useful information on many related questions could be 
collected in preparation for various projects that must ultimately be 
carried out under its guidance, and with the co-operation of the various 
State Agricultural Departments. 
Some of the main lines of inquiry of these proposed surveys would 
be as follows :— 
1. To record the distribution of diseases of plants and their annual 
prevalence in each section of the country. 
2. To estimate the amount of.loss suffered each year in order that 
the economic importance of the subject may be understood. 
8. To discover the introduction into the country of new and, pos- 
sibly, dangerous diseases, to the end that restriction measures 
may be advised. ats Mae 
4. To study epidemics of plant diseases in relation to weather, crop 
distribution, and other factors, and to obtain a better know- 
ledge of the conditions goyerning the development, spread, 
and control of such outbreaks. 
5. To gather data respecting the resistance and susceptibility of 
varieties to disease, for comparison of reports from different 
sections and correlation with climatological records. 
6. To develop closer relations between phytopathologists, to build 
up mycological collections, to illustrate the geographical range 
of plant parasites, and to publish from time to time special 
articles or monographs on -this subject. ; 
405 
