at I would like to say, in way of explanation or
apology, is in regard to criticism of the Department for not more
thoroughly attacking the filbert blight. Only forty-five thousand
dollars are appropriated by Congress for the investigation of the entire
fruit disease problem of the United States. That includes the great
citrus industry; everything, in fact, from cranberries on Cape Cod and
the mouth of the Columbia River to grape fruit in Florida or apples in
New York. It includes the subject of all the nut diseases, and that
means the problem of the diseases of the pecan, of walnut
bacteriosis--that is a big problem--in southern California, and more or
less in other parts of California, our great apple industry, the peach
yellows, the pear blight, etc. When it comes to parceling that out it
only leaves about three thousand dollars for nut diseases, and
thirty-five hundred dollars for studying diseases of citrus fruits, so
you must not be surprised that we cannot put a group of men on this
problem and study it as it should be studied. It is a question of men
and means.

Perhaps now some general information might be of interest and set you to
thinking.

In the first place in every disease problem, conspicuously so with our
fruit and nut diseases, there are two main classes of plants to be
considered, our native plants and the foreign plants. The pathologist is
always looking to the native origin of a plant in studying its
adaptation to the environment in which it is attempted to be grown. A
foreign plant may not necessarily be unadapted to another locality. The
vinifera grape is thoroughly adapted to California and to much of the
Pacific slope beyond the Rocky Mountains, but you know the vinifera
grape has a hard struggle in other parts of the United States. This is
not only a pathological problem but a physiological one. It cannot stand
a soaking rain for two weeks at a time; it cannot stand so much water
and humidity but it wants dry, hot sunshine continuously from the time
it puts out its leaves in the spring.

Another phase still more interesting is the question of foreign
parasites. Many of the worst diseases with which we have to contend are
either native diseases attacking introduced plants, or foreign diseases
attacking native plants. I will take that up in detail. Nature has
fought the battle all out with the native parasites against the native
host plants, so we don't have to do it. It's a case of the surviv