The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-16
A Destructive Disease-Cotton Wilt

VIII Ut tiIiiC tO try dHOthSis
 A Destructive Disease-Cotton Wilt.
 Pittsboro. Ala. July Il, 1901. To the Editor:
 About fifteen years back the cotton in this neighborhood commenced to blight And it has increased each year. Unless we get some relief cotton raising in this section will be thing or the past. We call it the black root. We send you sample under separate cover. You will notice the roots and wood of the stalks. All turn black. We nave tried rotation of crop and everything else we have ever heard Of. and found no relief. We write you thinking that il you will say something through your columns we might derive some benefit or relief just at this time. If in power of Commissioner of Agriculture We would like for him to send an expert to make examinations. Yours very truly.
 F. P. Pitts.
 The specimen cotton plants are at tackled by cotton wilt" or black root, as it is known in portions of Alabama. The characteristic symptom of the dis ease is the blackening or browning of the tissue of the stem, as shown when the stalk is cut.
 This wilt is believed to be the most serious of all diseases of cotton. It has been investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture and by the Biological Department of the Alabama Experiment station. The writer in two articles in The Weekly Advertiser has called attention to the conclusions of the experts. who have studied this dis ease in field and laboratory. Those in- terested should apply for copies of Bull Ietin l07 of the Alabama Experiment station. and for Bulletin 27 of the Divt- sion of Vegetable Pathology at Wash ington.
 The cotton plant attacked by wilt usually dies rather suddenly the prin- cipal losses occurring after the time when squares havo formed. The disease is caused by a fungus, a low microscopy ic form of vegetable life, which enters by way of the roots. grows upwards into the stems and limbs, plugging the water ducts. cutting off he circulation of moisture. and causing the broWnish appearance within the'stem.
 This disease occurs from South Caro- lima to Arkansas. In Alabama it is con- fined chiefly to the southern half of the State. It is more frequently found on old than on recently cleared land. It occurs only in certain fields in a neigh borhood and in these the diseased areas are at first only small spots which grow larger each year as the fungus becomes more widely scattered in the soil
 Numerous fertilizers and poisons have been tried in vain. Neither lime, kali nit, copper compounds, copperas, car bolic acid nor fcrmalin has restrained the disease. There Is no known remedy or cure. but number of preventive measures. recommended by W. A. Or ton, the expert from Washington, are here, summarized: CD Pulling up and burning the stalks on the diseased areas and for few feet beyond; this is done because the diseased stalks are largely the means of spreading the fun guns; @ disinfection of blows, etc.. used in the diseased field, since the fungus may adhere to and be spread by farm implements; it is more convenient to have a separate set of implements for diseased fields or to skip the infect ed spots when cultivating the crop; (3) keeping animals from running on in- fected fields. scattering the contagion on their feet; (D growing no cotton Cor okra) on the diseased soil for a number of years, four or more, for the fungus has been found to remain alive in the soil for four years; (5) use of seed of varieties or strains which show most resistance to cotton wilt. In one years tests Orton found the Jackson or African (so-called limbless) variety more resistant than any other upland kind. about half the plants of this va riety living in strongly infected soil against one-fourth to one-twentieth of the plants of other common varieties. Seed selected from plants that con tinue healthy though grown in infected soil produced plants that were strong ly resistant to cotton wilt It Is stated that the United States Department of Agriculture is now engaged in making selections of resistant plants for seed with the hope of evolving a variety more resistant than any we now have. It may take years to accomplish this.
 Meantime the best course to pursue with fields badly infected is to devote them to other crops or to pasturage. The presence of this destructive wilt over extensive areas in South Alabama Is one of the most convincing argu- ments that livestock should become a more important interest in that DOT tion (and for other reasons) Tn all other portions of the State. This course the writer has repeatedly urged and now reiterates.
 The recommendation of devoting in- fected fields to pasturage, if not needed for oats or corn, is not in conflict with the third preventative measure, for the spread of the cotton wilt fungus would not be objectionable in a pasture since it does not attack pasture grasses and clovers.
 J. F. Duggar.