The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-17
ON FUNCOUS DISEASES.
VERY TIMELY REPORT.
State Botanist Clinton Gives Results of His
 Experiments.

|
 The Connecticut Agricultural Ex- pertinent station in this city, has just issued, as Part V. of it's annual report for 1906, the report of the botanist, G., P. Clinton, on investigations of flung ous diseases and their prevention made by him during the past year. The report consists of our paers, of about 65 pages. illustrated by l6 full page plates.
 The first article describes, in brief notes, some of the common fungous troubles of the past year that oc- cured on cultivated plants, and a number of new diseases that were brought to light for the first time in this state. The aim of the botanist Is eventually to thus describe every fungous and physiological trouble of cultivated plants that occurs in Con lnecticut. Already about 400 have been reported
 The second paper gives a short ac- count of the peculiar onion disease known as brittle. The young onions have unusual malformations of their leaves which also become very brittle. Many seedlings are killed so that the stand is poor and the growth of those remaining is effected. Once the fungus causing this trouble is estab- lished in the soil, it becomes more in- l furious from year to year until it is unprotitables to grow onions on the in- fested land. The past year, at Gull ford, experiments by which the soil was treated with formalin. or lime and sulphur. at the time of seeding, show ed that this trouble could be con trolled.
 An unusual case of dry rot by the house fungus Is described in the third article. The dry rot or house fungus not infrequently ocurs in the wood- work of greenhouses, ice-houses, eel lars. barns, etc, when the conditions of moisture are right for it, causing the decay of the sills or a few boards. The very wet weather of last June favored the rapid development of this fungus in the basement Sunday school room of church at Stony Creek, where it Id unusual injury In fact the upper part of the church was in danger of being invaded, since the fungus has been known to attack the upper stories, even when they were dry, when once 1t became thoroughly established in the lower damp parts of the building. In the present case the infected woodwork was cut out and the vicinity sprayed with formaln and carbolic acid to kill the exposed myceia and spores of the fungus that Imight have remained. Certain changes to keep the basement drier were also made. So far the fungus has not renewed it's attack.
 The last and most extended article deals with the root rot of tobacco, This is a fungous trouble that was discovered last spring, for the first time in this state. injurlng the roots of tobaceo-both in the seed beds and the fields. In the seed beds the at tack was so severe that many of the roots of the seedlings were entirely routed off, causing a dwarfing of the infected plants and a backward and irregular development of the beds as a whole In the fields the injury was mot usually so conspicuous. This trou- ble did little or no damage in the to- bacco region of the Naugatuck valley, but was very common in the Connecti- cut valley. In the region. of Sutfield several large fields were seriously in- jured either by this fungus or indirect ly by 1t and fertilizer poisoning, Pre- liminary experiments showed that, so far as the seed beds are concerned, the root rot can be prevented ~ sterlliz- ing the soil with formalin before seed ing, Preventive measures are given in detail in the paper.
 Those interested in this report can obtaiG the same by addressing the di- rector of the experiment station at New Haven