The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-09
HOSPITAL FOB SICK PLANTS
ONE on A BIG SCALE IN WASHING
TOS.

a
pital. II is a building Of glass, and in it
vegetal invalids Of various species will be
treated. Facilities are afforded for con-
Quoting on an extensive scale certain in
vestigations which hitherto have been
carried on only in a small way. The pur-
pose in view is to study diseases which
attack growing things In field and garden.
Oddly enough, the plants that are
brought nto the hospital are perfectly
healthy; they are made IN by inoculating
mem artifcially with this or that COM
plant.
II 1t We're practicable to put a number
OF human beings in a room and inoculate
them with cholera, pneumonia, typhoid fe-
Yer, etc, studying the development of the
diseases and the symptoms produced I'M
der varying conditions, much that
Is valuable might be learned
mucn that would be a benefit TO
mankind at large That is exact
~ what is done with the plants In this hos
pltal- FOR example, the government experts
are now engaged In studying the new and
strange complaint which has attacked the
Easter lily. All of the lilies for Easter
come from bermuda; that Is to say, the
bulbs are imported from those islands.
This year nearly half the crop will be lost
by the sickness, which causes the plant to
wltner ana fail in the towering.
one ward in the hospital is devoted ex-
cluslvely TO Easter lilies, at present Most
of the plants are fresh and healthy, but
there are a few sick ones among them.
Now, IL Is presumed that germs of some
sort are likely to be concerned in the
propagation of disease; the question is to
ma them. For this purpose. some lily
= -.,i. ~ 1891 0NCo AiOAA Aca CO. - bdktH IN
a small glass saucer and made solid by
mixing II with gelatine. Both saucer and
gelatne have been sterilized previously
by neat so that they contain no germs of
any kind. Then the saucer with the pre-
pared lily juice is exposed in the hospital
"4ru where the lilies are for an hour.
There are always disease germs floating
ABOUT in the air of any hospital for human
beings. II is the same way with a hos
pital for plants. The microbes cannot be
Kept out. Some are bacteria, while others
are the spores of various parasitic fungi,
such as those which cause rusts and
molds. Germs from the lily are apt to be
tond or lily juice, and that is why lily
juice is put in the saucer-in order To
attract the microbes which are to be iden-
tined. AT the end of the hour the saucer
Is covered up and sealed Theoretically.
NOlnlnB IS 10 De seen on the Jelly mixture.
but In reality a good many fungus spores
ana bacteria have found Judgment upon
Three or four days later the cover Is
taken on the glass saucer, and several
Altle spots are visible on the Jelly Each
OF these spots is a colony of bacteria or
fungus spores, which have multiplied by
teeding on the jelly mixture 1t is easv
enough then to examine them under a
microscope. The difficulty is to identify
satisfactorily the particular microbe that
IS imagined to be making the trouble with
the lily. This can be ACCOMPLISHED onIv
by persistent study. However, it is by
no means certain that the disease in ques-
non Is caused by a germ, fungous or bac-
terlal. There are a number of other theo-
RES one of which is that the bulbs are
aug TOO early; The demand for early
bulbs in the United States induces the
Bermuda lily farmer to harvest his crop
permaturely, and persistence in this prac-
ice year after year has injured the Vi
tally OF the bdlbs PERTAINS
80 the attending physicians at the plant
nospfal are experimenting with Bermu-
da lily bulbs which were dug at various
times, some early and others late In
those Islands of the sea the same land is
used year after year for producing these
bulbs. Now, no land will stand that sort
OF business indefinitely with any crop: il
gets sick" after awhile, so far as that
klnd OF crop is concerned. 1t NAV be
that this is the cause Of the trouble with
the lilies. Accordingly, the experts are
making trials of old and new soils. The
bermuda farmers declare that the fault
Is not that of the bulbs, which are ali
right when they deliver them, but Of the
florists in the United States, who do not
Similar methods are practiced with sick
plants or other species. The germs are
caught and bottled, so TO speak; after
thy specimens II they reproduce the
complaint, II is demonstrated that the
guilty microbe has been successfully iden-
tihed. This has been accomplished with
remarkable success in the case of a dis
ease that is making alarming rayages at
present on the cotton plantations Of the
sea islands along the Carolina coast. This
cotton is the finest in the world; it fetches
IN the market five or six times the price
Of ordinary cotton, having a strong and
beautiful staple OF great length Its cult
walton is a highly developed art, no plant
being selected for seed which does not
come up to q. certain standard. Even the
diameter of the fiber must be just so, as
determined by the microscope of the far
mer.
The sea island cotton, which has been
In hal Co.
half a century, is threatened with total
destruction by an extraordinary complaint
which. until lately, has been mystery.
Who ever heard of a disease that would
kill a plant in two hours? Yet that is
what this peculiar malady is able to ac-
complish. In the morning the cotton plant
is apparently healthy and thriving; by
noon it is lying on the ground to all in
tents and purposes dead. There is no such
thing as recovery. Well in order to UNI
derstand the nature of the trouble, you
must realize that the stem of any plant is
a pipe by which water is conveyed from
the ground to the various parts of its ana
tony. II that pipe is stopped up, the plant
withers and perishes right awy
This is exactly what happens to the
cotton plant A species of fungus gets
into the lower part of the stem and goes
right for the water pipe, which by its
own growth II stops up as effectually as
a cork stops bottle. In the course of
the investigation made by the govern
ment experts IL was ascertained that the
Sea Island farmers make a. practice of
lighting COW peas IN their cotton fields
after the cotton had been gathered. Late
in the fall the sow peas, which are rich
in nitrogen, are turned under by plow-
ing for a green manure An important
discovery was that the COW peas are the
natural hosts of the destructive fungus.
When the latter finds no COW peas TO prey
on it attacks the cotton plants. Hence
the trouble
This has been verified in the hospital
by sprinkling healthy cotton plants with
water containing spores of the fungus
obtained from infected COW pease. Unfor-
tunately, fungi of the same family and
with like habits attack the tomato, the
potato, the egg plant and the cucumber
BY stopping up their water pipes they
cut off their water supply. The seeming
~ healthy cucumber vines thus assailed
is withered and practically dead within
two or three hours.
There is a surgical ward in the plant
hospital. Here are to be found num-
Der of little pear trees in pots, stricken
with a kind of blight that turns leaves
and branches black. The only remedy
is amputation of the affected parts The
discovery of the nature of this disease
and the manner in which IL is spread.
is one OF the greatest triumphs of Prof
Galloway, the physclan-in-chief In this
case. likewise, a fungus is responsible for
the mischief, spreading through the cells
of the plant and destroying them. The