The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-07-31
Their Practice Largest In World,
but They Get No Fees.
SPEND 100000 EACH YEAR.
Physicians and Nurses at Thirty FIVE
Field Stations Throughout Country,
IN Addition to the Big Pathological
Laboratory In Washington.


sicians, with headquarters in Washing
ton, who, while having in one sense the
largest practice in the world, get no
fees from their patients. The physi-
clans are the plant doctors employed
by the government to guard against
and eradicate the ravages of disease
among plants within the borders OF
the United States. In addition to the
big pathological laboratory in Washing
tun, the government, maintains thirty
five field stations or plant hospitals
scattered through the country, each
with its physician in charge and
corps of nurses.
The bureau of plant industry of the
department of agriculture. under which
this work Is conducted, spends $780,
600 year in protecting the health of
our plants. 1t Is estimated that this
activity results in saving of $40 .OOO.-
600 year in the fields and forests.
The annual losses in the whole coun-
try from plant disease amount to up
ward of half billion dollars year.
Plant diseases become epidemic from
time to time and sweep through
country. causing terrible mortality
among certain growing things and
sometimes completely destroying great
agricultural industries. Before 1870
Ceylon coffee was known for Ms excel
beDce throughout the world. Coffee
Plantations formed the principal busi-
ness Of the island. But a pestllence
struck the coffee plants and wiped
them out in fifteen years, causing a
loss Of $75,OOODOO. Not a pound of
coffee has since been grown on Cey-
Lun. Sometimes the plant pestilences
are the direct cause of the loss of
thousands of human lives, as In the
great Irish famine, which was directly
due to a disease which swept the po-
tafo fields and destroyed the tubers.
Epidemic Of 1885.
In 1885 an epidemic of wheat rust
caused damage of $1.S75,OOO In the
state Of Illinois. The California vine
disease wrought $1O,O0O,OoO worth of
destruction in 1892. Throughout the
United States the wheat rust pesti-
hence damaged the crop 10 the tune of
$S7OO0,O0O in 1893. A blight swept
over the potato fields In New York in
1904 causing loss of $1O,OOO,OOO.
In some respects a few plant dis
eases have points Of similarity with
human fills. The sugar beet, for in
stance, suffers from a sort of malaria,
the germ Of which rs injected into it
by the bite Of an insect. A round,
fungild spOt on the leaves of the beet
is the sign OF another disease which
causes the leaves TO curl up and die
and greatly dtmtnishes the precious
sugar in the beet itself. While these
diseases have not spread sufficiently
TO exercise any serious injury to the
crop, they and twenty others which
aftlict the sugar beet In minor degrees
are being particularly studied by the
plant doctors.
Not only is the .beet's saccharin CON
tent productive of sugar worth S7O,-
100000 in the Omitted States each year,
but the beet is a wonderful soil con-
server and In rotation with other crops
scientific agriculture IN Europe An
other reason why particular attention
Ia being given TO the task Of rendering
the sugar beet immune 10 the attacks
Of disease Is that, while the culture of
chiS crop has expanded very rapidly
within the last ten years, Its cultiva-
oon is still comparatively a new indus
try IN the Omitted States. and only
small proportion OF the area adapted to
its growth is now devoted to IT.
Chestnut Bark Diseases.
ODecriousplanseptiemic the-chest-
not bark disease is now sweeping the
eastern part Of the country and threat
ems to eliminate this species OF tree
completely from American forests 1t |
has done S1OO,OO0yOOO damage thus far,
and the chestnut is already a thing of |
the past within a radius of fifty or
more miles about the metropolis The
disease rs caused by minute fungus. |
The only method Of controlling the |
spread Is by Segregation-destruy |
trees throughout the territory |
Involved and creating an immune area. |
By applying principles OF eugenics to |
bnild up harder race the plant doc
tor occasionally checks the ravages of |
disease. This plan was tried success
fuTiy when a pestiience swept through |
the sea island cotton in South Caro-
ffna fifteen years ago. In an acre OF |
ctton four or five stalks would be |
bonnd standing among the stricken
plants. From theee stalks seeds would
be selected and tried out on the in
eected land the following year, and
again the healthiest stalks would be
Eept fur bCeeding purposes. By the
md Of FIVE years a strain was found
Ihat could resist the disease. But when
similar waterDebon disease attacked
M meaon fields few years later this
method could not apaH. The pesti-
ence was too severe.
The most striking of all the recent
iifcoV1nrtaa nv fine nlanf h,,c4,,rS haua L