Plant Diseases

At last the Department of Agriculture has produced a book which should alert the nation's farmers to the malignant and dangerous growth of plant diseases. A comprehensive study with a foreword by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, Plant Diseases discusses pertinent maladies ranging from "Root Rots, Wilts and Blights of Peas," to "The Smuts of Wheat, Oats, and Barley." The report has not been published merely as a scientific discussion of plant problems, or to indicate how ruinous these diseases could be for the farmers. As Secretary Benson points out, "To me the most startling aspect of plant disease is that they cost three billion dollars a year."

Besides reviewing some of the broader effects of smut and rot upon the nation's economy. The Yearbook analyzes many individual types of diseases, some of which seem to possess unique importance. A chapter entitled "Broomrapes, Dodders, and Mistletoes" is particularly noteworthy because it illustrates the alarming growth of parasites in this country. The problem is serious, although the chapter offers one small note of encouragement: "The damage caused by broomrape in America does not approach the situation in Europe."

Almost equally dangerous are the maladies attacking America's fruits. In his penetrating contribution "Sooty Blotch and Fly Speck," author A. B. Groves examines two significant, apple-destroying fungi. Describing these diseases, he says, "Sooty Blotch appears as sootlike spots or blotches. Fly speck makes dark spots and looks something like fly specks." If more of Dr. Groves diagnoses were taken seriously, farmers would no longer need to wonder about those funny, black things on their apples.

The two chapters of parasites and fungi are by no means all of the Agriculture study. "Phony Peach and Peach Mosaic" not only gets to the heart of the annoying fruit virus problem, but also contains some rather caustic remarks about "the phony peach project of 1929." Other chapters of importance include: "Powdery Mildew of Apples," "The Rot That Attacks 2,000 Species," "Stony Pit of Pears," and "Hazards to Onions in Many Areas.

Plant Diseases is a volume of immense scope containing information of value to both laymen and scientists. By clearing up much of the muddle-headed thinking on plant infection problems, it surely will prove a useful scquel to the Department's 1950 volume, Crops in Peace and War."