The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-18
VEGETABLE IMMUNEs.
Inoculation Found to Act on vege-
tables as on Animal Life.
From the Philadelphia Record.

From the Philadelphia Record.
The newest scientific discovery Is
preventive incubation for plant dis
| ease. 1t offers to the world move
means of fighting the numerous mala-
dies which attack the garden, the or
chard and the ripening field crops. Hy-
| podermic injection of certain germ cul-
| ture are given to the plants, which, be-
ing mildly sickened for while, pres
emily recover, and are thereafter proof
against INSTRUMENTATION vegetable
immunes, in fact.
1t would be out of the question, OBJ
viously, for farmer to go about in his
fields and administer such medical
treatment to the plants individually
but, in truth, nothing of the kind is re-
quired. The object of the work is ia
establish varieties that are immune,
and these may be counted upon to
transmit to their descendants the dis
ease-proof quality acquired by them. In
a word, the tiller of the soil in future
years will cultivate only the immune
strains of vegetables, cerals and fruit
trees.
Plants, like animals, are subject to
ever so many diseases. most OF them
caused by germs of one kind and an
other. Such heterogeneous, when
they feed on the leaves, cause what are
called trusts" and "smuts," which fire.
quently do an immense amount of dam
age. Often the fruit, in garden or or
chard, rots in the very act of ripen-
ing, and this is as likely as not to be
| occasioned by a peculiar bacterium
known to science as the bacillus putre-
faciens.
Battle of the Bacillus.
This bacillus has been chosen as a
special favorite for the incubation
work. 1t grows rapidly on gelatine,
and is easily utilized, in suitable So
luton, for injections. Wheat oats,
beans, sunf1owerS and radishes, when
infected in this way, show symptoms
| of being unwell, but soon throw them
| off, and are thenceforth proof not only
| against plant rot" but also against
| other common maladies due TO germs.
The bacillus, in feeding on the gela-
| tine. multiplies at a great rate, and,
incidentally, develops a poison peculiar
| to itself. This poison, or toxin, as the
| experts call it, can be separated from
| the germs themselves by simple pro-
| cess of filtering. Then it may be used
| by itself in making the injections, and
as so far shown, it has the same effect
in rendering the plant immune. 1t APP
| pears 10 the
| of the complaint without the actual
malady, but the result is equally sat
| isfactory.
1t has been ascertained, however
| that incubation is not really neces-
sary, inasmuch as the same effects
may be secured by simply watering
! the plants with the germ culture, OF
| with the toxin derived therefrom. Such
| being the case, it might be easy fol
| -. 80 nr fIni
crops by distributing the remedy-or
one should rather say preventive-oveI
| their fields. A tube full of bacterial
| culture once secured from a labora-
| tory, or possibly furnished by the gov
| eminent there would be no difficulty
| in making up the preparation by the
| hogshead, employing dilute beef tea
or other suitable solution of reasona-
BILE cheapness for the propagation OF
the germs.
Oxygenated Water.
| The loss occasioned to farmers in
| this country annually by germ dis
eases which attack the growing plants
is gigantic, and the prospect that such
| maladies may be combated by proven
tive incubation naturally excites much
| hopeful interest. Whereas some OF
| these germs are bacteria, the grea'
| majority of them are microscopic fun
| ri. There are thousands of species OF
| such fungi, parasitic in habit
whose spores corresponding tc
seeds) are always floating about in the
air. Their depredations, when eXcep-
! tionally severe, used to be regarded as
| plaques sent by a displeased Provi-
dence, but such matters are better I'M
| derstood nowadays, and our own De-
partment of Agriculture has made a
! special study of means for fighting the
pests.
1t has also been discovered recently
that plants may be made more Vigor-
Gus by watering them with oxygen
ated water, and that they may be rem
dered more resistant to disease by in
oculating them with apple acid or
crane acid. These acids are familiar
commercial products and easily OBJ
tanned, though it is not suggested that
it would be worth any farmers while
to purchase them for such purpose.
The study of germ diseases of plants
occupies the entire attention or a dlVl-
sion of the Department OF Agriculture.
Every now and then plague of one
kind or another breaks out in this re-
gion or that, and experts are sent to
the locality to make study of 1t.
Parts of the afflicted plants are sent to
Washington, and the responsible fungi
of bacteria are propagated in glass
tubes. The cultures thus obtained are
used if the malady is reproduced 1t is
known that the germ has been sue
cessfully identified. Then it remains to
watch it's life history and to find out
what will kill it most quickly and
surely.
CrOss-Bred Cereals.
Meanwhile, cereals and other econ
omic plants are cross-bred for the pur-
pose of obtaining varieties that resist
disease. Plant-breeding has been re-
duced to scientific basis, and the up
to-date botanist is able literally to
make almost anything that he wants
in the way of vegetable, for example,
by a process of artificial selection and
suitable mating. Where flowers com
bine both sexes, like those of wheat or
oats, he cuts away the male part with
a pair of scissors, fertilizes the bios
som thus treated with pollen from a
flower of another variety and ties it
up in a bag of paper or gauze to pre-
vent any other pollen from getting at
it. Thus he is able to marry any two
plants that are likely to produce i'm
proved offspring.
There are certain germs which, far
from being injurious to plants, are
highly beneficial to them. Pease and
beans, for example. depend largely for
their healthy growth upon bacteria,
which attach themselves to the root
let's, feeding upon the latter and form
ing about each of their colonies a
woody frbercle Thus the roots on