The Portland daily press., 1896-03-27
SOMETHING NEW IN HOSPITALS.
the Department of Agriculture at Wash
ington.


hospital. 1t is building of glass, and
in it vegetable invalids of various species
will be treated. Facilities are afforded
for conducting on an extensive scale GER
tain Investigations which hitherto have
been carried on only in a small way.
The purpose in view is to study diseases
which attack growing things in field and
garden. Oddly enough, the plants that
are brought into the hospital are per-
fectly healthy; they are made i'll by in
oculating them artifically with this Or
that complaint.
If it were practicable to put number
of human beings. in room and inooulate
them with cholera pneumonis, typhoid
fever, etc., studying the development of
the diseases and the symptoms produced
under varying conditions, much that is
valuable might be learned-much that
would be a benefit to mankind at large.
This is exactly what is done with the
plants in this hospital. For example,
the government experts are now engaged
in studying the new and strange COM
plant 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
wither and fail in the towering.
One ward in the hospital is devoted ex-
clusiyely to Easter lilies at present. Most
of the plants are fresh and healthy, but
there are few siok ones among them.
Now, it is presumed that germs of some
sort are likely to be concerned in the pro-
pagation of the disease, the question is
TO find them. For this purpose some
lily juice, squeezed from leaves, is taken
in small glass saucer and made solid by
mixing it with gelstine. Both saucer
and gelatine have been sterilized previ-
ously by heat, so that they contain no
germs of any kind. Then the saucer with
the prepared lily juice is exposed in the
hospital ward where the lilies are for an
hour.
There are always disease germs floating
human beings. 1t is the same way with
hospital for plants. The microbes can
not be kept out. .iome are bacteria,
while Others are tlH spores Of various par
asitio fungi, such as those which cause
rusts and molds. Germs from tho lily
are apt to be fond of lily juice and that
is why lily juice is put in the saucer-in
order to attract the microbes which are
to be identified. AT the end of the hour
the saucer is covered ND and sealed her.
medically. Nothing is to be seen on the
jelly mixture. but in reality good many
fungus spores and bacteria have found
Judgment upon it.
Three or four days later the cover is
taken off Of the glass saucer, and several
little spots are visible on the jelly. Each
of these spots is a colony of bacteria or
fungus spores, which have multiplied by
feeding on the jelly mixture. It is easy
enough them to examine them under a
microscope. The difficulty is to identify
satisfactorily the particular micro be that
is imagined to be making the trouble
with the lily. This can be accomplished
only by persistent Study. However, it is
ny LIZ lu0hu5 ScEU Al JlldU UllS ulS6A6e ia
question is caused by germ, fungus or
bacteria. There are number of other
theories, one Of which is that the bulbs
are dug too early. The demand for early
bulbs in the United States induces the
Bermuda lily farmer to harvest his crop
prematurely, and persistence in this
practice year after year has injured the
vitality of bulbs perhaps.
So the neutrality-suspicious. at the plant
hospital are experiment ting with Ber-
muda lily bulbs which were dug at vari-
Gus 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; it gets "sickn after while 50
far as that kind Of crop is concerned. 1t
may be that this is the cause of the
trouble with the lilies. Accordingly the
| experts are making trials of old end new
soils. The Bermuda farmers declare that
tn e fault is not that of the bulbs, which
are all right when they deliver them, but
of the florists in the United States, who
do not treat them properly.
Similar methods are practiced with
sick plants of other species. The germs
are caught and bottled. so to speak, after
which they are used for inoculating
healthy specimens If they reproduce the
complaint, it is demonstrated that the
guilty miorobe has been successfully
identified. This has been accomplished
with remarkable SUCCESS in the case of
disease that is making alarming ravag-
es 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 cultivation is highly deyel-
oped art, no plant being selected for seed
which does not come up to certain
standard. Even the diameter of the fiber
must be just so, as determined by the
microscope of the farmer.
The Sea island cotton, which has been
L. o..