Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-06-21
LOSE OVER 500. 600, 900.
Farmers Hard Hit by Diseases Which
Iujure Plants.

Farmers Hard Hit by Diseases Which
Injure Plants.
Losses 70 crops through plaIt dis
eases are estimated now as mounting
into hundreds of millions of dollars
yearly.
According to the report for 1903,
just issued blythe Department of Agri-
culture. the damage to the potato crep
through blight and rot was $1O,O00,000
in New York State alone.
From all parts of the country re-
ports of plant diseases affecting all
sorts of crops come and make up a
total monetary loss that it is we'll
nigh impossible to estimate.
The cotton root rot in Texas pre-
vailed to greater extent than for
many years. the loss being estimated
at about S2,000,n00
Anthraonose has been generally
prevalent from North Carolina to
Georgia and locally injurious. especial
ly to sea island cotton in south Geor
. gia. Wilt continues to spread slowly
and now occurs III limited areas in
North Carolina and South Carolina
and is widely prevalent in south Geor-
gia and southeastern Alabama, in con.
nection with root rot. Rust occurred
as usual on the poorer soils and was
unusually severe in Texas.
The potato blight and rot caused
widespread destruction. being espe-
Toll -,
sylvania, northeastern Ohio, Michigan
and Wisconsin. The cherry shot hole
fungus was injurious in New York
and Pennsylvania and prevailed de-
structiyely in Iowa and Nebraska
Crown gail is becoming more serious
every year as nursery pest through
out the country The black rot of
grape was more general in Connects
cult and Rhode Island, the loss being
40 per cent.
Corn smut caused heavy loss in Ma
ryland and was common in New York.
Corn leaf blight was general in Con
necticut, Delaware, eastern PennSyl-
vania and New Jersey Alfalfa rust
affected Ohio and rice blast was felt
especially in the Cooper River section
of South Carolina, where the crop was
over 100000 bushels short The loss
from the spread of this disease in the
last six years is estimated at 1000.
600. Asparagus rust is increasing in
the East and important canning dis
tricts are badly affected Watermelon
wilt is spreading in the South and
cantaloupe leaf blight was Injurious,
especially in the South the loss in
Florida being 40 per cent.
Apple scah was much less injurious
in the East. but it seems to have been
more destructive in the West, especial
ly in Wisconsin, Eastern Nebraska and
Missouri. Apple canker or brown rot
was prevalent in Connecticut. Ohio,
New York and Michigan Black heart,
a disease affecting the wood of apple
trees, was reported from Montana, Ne
braska. Iowa Kansas and adjacent
States.
Brown rot was again less injurious
in the Eastern States, but was very
destructive to Southern peaches. the
loss amounting to from so to GO per
cent of the crop in Georgia. Peach
leaf curl seems to cause immense loss
es each year. In Ohio, in Ottawa
County alone, the loss from leaf curl
was $4,000.
The department in a report on the
principal injurious insects of 1908 says
the calendar year showed smaller loss
es than in many years. Certain pests
caused great injury in limited locali-
ties and several new insect enemies
Of crops We're discovered.
The Mexican cotton boil weevil
which spread into Louisiana, is stamp
ed as the most important insect pest
of the present time.