Begin Page 1. Department of Plant Pathology University of Wisconsin Madison, Wis. Wisconsin Pathogen Issued Occasionally from the Plant Pathology Department of the University of Wisconsin Madison - Feb. 15, 1930 Hello Everybody Drawing of a man sitting on a stool reading a paper. End Page 1. Begin Page 2. To all the students of Professor L.R. Jones: So many items of interest have occurred since the last issue of 'The Wisconsin Pathogen" that another issue seems the best solution for getting the information across. Our family is increasing in size with each group of graduates, and everyone who leaves our circle has an interesting story to tell and always holds a warm place in his heart for the happenings around the laboratory. Obviously only the high points can be touched in a letter of this kind. Come back with news notes so that another issue may appear in Semptember. Thanks a lot! R.E. Vaughan Editor End Page 2. Begin Page 3. Begin Page 3. Prof. L. R. Jones will be en route for San Juan, Puerto Rico, by the time this letter is mailed. His trip is in connection with interests of the Tropical Plant Research Foundation, of which he is president. He will be accompanied by Mrs. Jones and Dean Russell, and will return early in March. Before sailing, Professor Jones will stop for conferences at the University of Michigan, Cornell University, the University of Vermont, and Columbia University. At Burlington, Vermont, he will attend the celebration in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Science Club which he helped to found in 1905. Then in Washington attending the meetings of the National Academy of Sciences last fall the "Washington bunch" headed by A. G. Johnson and H. A. Edson gave Prof. and Mrs. Jones a surprise party at the Cosmos Club. It was a splendid success and attended by about forty enthusiastic former Jones students. It was essentially a welcoming party for the new Mrs. Jones, so that she might feel at home with the younger group as well as those whom she had known earlier when signing her name Anna Clark. In late April or early May, Prof. and Mrs. Jones will start their European trip, culminating at the Fifth International Botanical Congress of Plant Science, Cambridge, England, in August. As you may know, Prof. is to act as chairman of the Section of Mycology and Plant Pathology. In his keynote address he will discuss the question of environment and the occurrence of plant disease. While in Europe he will visit a number of former students as well as the leading botanical laboratories. It is the present plan to leave New York by a Mediterranean boat and work north from Constantinople, through Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark before arriving at Cambridge for the botanical meetings. J. G. Dickson is getting a big kick out of his present and contemplated associations with the Russian plant disease situation. He has been in conference with the directors of several Russian Agricultural Colleges who are now touring this country. The forepart of March he will sail for London and Berlin, later to proceed to Moscow. It is his plan to reach the Russian grain fields in the southern part of the country when the possibilities for studying diseases and disease resistance are at their height and follow north with the development of the crop. For a part of the study he will be joined by Professor Jones. They will be together at the London conference in August to lead the discussion on the environmental relations in reference to plant disease. Dickson is going as an agent of the United States Depratment of Agriculture, in search of disease resistant grains in the oldest grain growing district of the world. G.W. Keitt, in charge of fruit disease investigations continues special interest in apple scab, cherry leaf spot, fire blight, and crown-gall. George is acting head of department when Prof. Jones is absent. A. J. Riker is in charge of graduate laboratory and investigations on crown-gall and other bacterial diseases. Mrs. Riker devotes some time to aster diseases with Professor Jones, and has at the present time, manuscript for a couple of articles. She is, however, finding more and more time required at home. The Rikers have a new house at the corner of Prospect Avenue and Spooner Street, Madison. End Page 3. Begin Page 4. J. C. Walker. In charge of truck disease investigations, also agent U. S. Department of Agriculture. Major interests cutters and onion disease resistance. Outstanding contribution to pathology the discovery that protocatachuic acid is the cause of resistance to smudge in red onion. The chemical phases of this project were conducted in cooperation with Karl Link, Ag. Chemistry Department. R. E. Vaughan. In charge of Extension and undergraduate teaching. During the past year especial attention has been given to potato treatment and grain seed treatment. A potato demonstration train has recently been operated through Northern and Central Wisconsin, sponsored by the Soo Line Ry., and the Departments of Horticulture and Plant Pathology. J. W. Brann. In change of potato field inspection and special cage and indexing operations in connection with mosaic. Some 30,000 potato eyes are being grown in the greenhouse this winter. In the summer a special laboratory was maintained at Rhinelander. James Johnson. The tobacco expert, located for administration purposes in our horticultural department but gives most attention to tobacco diseases. Mosaic troubles of tobacco, potato etc. are demanding some time end attention. As Agent of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Jim takes a trip every summer through the tobacco regions of the country. Last summer he went by auto and took the family along. They had one fine time, "Did" Niagara Falls, Washington's home at Mt. Vernon, etc. Jim M. Hamilton. Working with Keitt on toxicity of sulphur in apple scab control. R. G. Shands. Agent U. S. Dept. of Agriculture Cereal Diseases. In charge of the field plots during absence of Dickson. A lot of work is under way with the new cereal dusts. R. M. Caldwell, Agent, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. In charge of Barberry Eradication in Wisconsin. The barberries have got to go and Ralph with his staff of "barbarians" is giving them a lift. Miss Helen Johann, Assoc. Pathologist, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Associated with Dickson in cereal disease studies. Miss Isme Hoggan, associated with J. Johnson in tobacco mosaic studies. Miss Hoggan is planning a vacation to England this summer and will read a paper on mosaic at the Botanical Congress. S. P. Doolittle, Pathologist, U. S. Department of Agriculture, continues his pleasant relations of being stationed at Madison in the summer and Florida in the winter. Mosaic diseases of truck crops claim his attention. F. R. Jones, Senior Pathologist, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, is working intensively on alfalfa wilt in search of resistance. He has strains of alfalfa under observation from all parts of the world. A. C. Foster, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Truck Diseases, is located for a time in our laboratory. He is working primarily with celery, lettuce and endive diseases. P. E. Hoppe. agent, U. S. D. A. Cereal Diseases. He is working with Dr. Dickson on seedling blights. End Page 4. Begin Page 5. E. M. Gilbert is associated with us in teaching Course 101 and is now Head of the Botany Department. He acted as Toastmaster at the “Anti-Phytopathological” Dinner held at the Savert Hotel at the mid-winter meetings. The plant pathology students now at Madison continue to come from widely separated sections of the country. This will be indicated from the following list: Name: Alexander, L.J. Home: Louisiana Project: Sugar beet diseases Name: Anderson, M.E. Home: Utah Project: Cabbage diseases Name: Banfield, W. M. Home: New Jersey Project: Crown gall Name: Bayles, B. B. Home: Kansas Project: Cereal diseases, root rot Name: Blank, L. M. Home: Kansas Project: Cabbage diseases Name: Blood, H. L. Home: Utah Project: Tomato canker Name: Boyle, L. W. Home: N. Dakota Project: Flax wilt Name: Dahl, A. S. Home: Wisconsin Project: Snow mold - golf greens Name: Gibson, E. A. Home: Wisconsin Project: Bacterial diseases – hairy root Name: Harris, M. R. Home: Ohio Project: Corn root rot Name: Hildebrand, E. M. Home: Wisconsin Project: Crown gall Name: Hoppe, P. E. Home: Wisconsin Project: Barley scab – seedling blights Name: Ivanoff, S. S. Home: Bulgaria Project: Bacterial disease – crown gall Name: Larson, R. H. Home: Wisconsin Project: Pea anthracnose Name: Magie, R. O. Home: New Jersey Project: Fruit diseases Name: Palmiter, D. H. Home: Oregon Project: Fruit diseases Name: Rieman, G. H. Home: Minnesota Project: Onion smudge – cooperation with Genetics Name: Shands, H. L. Home: S. Carolina Project: Cereal diseases – barley stripe Name: Shaw, Luther Home: N. Carolina Project: Fruit diseases - Fire blight Name: Smith, A. L. Home: Texas Project: Corn diseases Name: Snyder, W. C. Home: California Project: Pea wilt Name: Sumner, C. B. Home: Alabama Project: Cabbage diseases Name: Tharp, W. H. Jr. Home: Montana Project: Cereal diseases – seed treatment The boys kept the Seminar in candy for several weeks this fall in recognition of their French and German requirements. Some news notes from the following are of interest: H. W. Albertz, Director of Experiment Stations, Sitka, Alaska, is spending a part of the winter in California. He has promised lots of scenery and good hunting and fishing to any who might visit him in Alaska. L. J. Alexander is leaving the lab about February 15 for Wooster, Ohio where he will work on diseases of truck crops, particularly onions and sugar beets for the Ohio Experiment Station. End Page 5. Begin Page 6. H. R. Angell is with the Department of Botany, University of Sidney, Australia. He thought the trip over was decidedly l-o-n-g. C.W. Bennett is now associated with Carsner at Riverside, California, having resigned from the raspberry disease investigations in Michigan and Ohio. E. E. Clayton writes from London, England under date of January 11, 1930. He and Mrs. Clayton had spent two months in Holland, Germany and Denmark and at that time were working with Dr. Blackman at the Imperial College and Kew Gardens. They will be back at the Research Farm, Long Island in time for the growing season. G. H. Conant has severed his connection with the University of Pennsylvania and has returned to Ripon, Wisconsin where he is devoting his whole time to botanical preparations which are sold to the trade as "Triarch" products. T. P. Dykstra is assistant pathologist, U. S. D. A. with Barrs at Corvallis, Oregon. With the resignation of McKay many duties formerly handled by him have fallen to Dylcstra. T. Fukushi has recently resigned from the Tottori Agricultural College and is new Assistant Professor in Plant Pathology in the Hokkaido Imperial University in Sapporo, Japan. N. J. Giddings is now with Carsner at Riverside, California; engaged in sugar beet curly top disease investigations. J. G. Gilman assisted by W. W. Archer has just published in the Iowa Academy of Science a splendid work on the Parasitic Fungi of Iowa. G. H. Godfrey, Pathologist, Experiment Station, Assn. of Hawaiian Pineapple Canners, Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, is developing an extensive and intensive research in hematology. An advanced course with the University credit is available for the first time this year. This gives Godfrey's assistants an opportunity for University standing. Godfrey is vice president of the Hawaiian Botanical Society and is also interested in the Academy of Science. Daily swimming keeps the family in fine physical condition. G. Leland Green, Principal of the Berry Schools, Mt. Berry, Georgia, was granted the degree of Doctor of Pedagogy by the University of Georgia. This is a well deserved recognition of the high standards of schoolwork that G. Leland has been maintaining. E. E. Honey is carrying on in South America. He is Professor of Phytopathology, Escola Superior de Agricola, Luis de Quieroz, Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Much pioneer work is being opened up both in teaching and research. E. E. Hubert, Moscow, Idaho, gave us a call recently on his way back to Idaho from conference in Washington. He had to appear as witness in a smelter hearing. End Page 6. Begin Page 7. C. J. Humphrey for several years Forest Pathologist at Madison, is now head of the section of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Bureau of Science, Manila. C. W. Hungerford is assistant director as well as plant pathologist of the Idaho Experiment Station. He stopped off a few hours in Madison in October on his way to attend the meetings of the Land Grant Colleges held in Chicago. H. S. Jackson, formerly of Indiana has taken over the Botany and Plant Pathology work at Toronto University, Canada. A. G. Johnson, B. P. 1., Washington, D. C. gave us a short visit after the Des Moines Meetings. He was on administrative duties in connection with the cereal disease investigations that are conducted jointly by the government and some of the state experiment stations. It seemed like old times to hear his voice in the halls again. Aaron says the family are fine. Lewis is a senior in high school. ' L. K. Jones has changed his connection from Geneva, New York to Pullman, Washington. They have bought a new house and have had great fun getting it fixed up. E. J. Kohl came up from LaFayette a couple of days in December and passed off his oral examination for the Doctorate Degree. The Kohls have a new home in LaFayette and "E. J." had some splendid pictures with him. Wm. Kuntz, formerly at the Citrus Experiment Station, Lake Alfred, Fla. , is taking leave of absence this year and finishing up with his Doctorate work on the campus majoring in the Botany Department. He gets over to our side of the campus on Seminar days, and for conference with Professor Jones. M. B. Linford is now pleasantly located in Hawaii. He has surely had an eventful year. He closed up his work with the National Research Fellowship in May, was married soon afterward and visited Mrs. Linford's people in North Carolina and his own folks in Utah before starting for Honolulu. W. V. Ludbrook has just enrolled with us from Adelaide, S. Australia. He has been a student of Professor B. T. Dickson and Dr. H. R. Angell and comes under a Research Studentship of the University, Sydney. He will major in truck crop diseases with Dr. Walker. M. A. McCall, Cereal Office, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, has been made acting head of the office following the resignation on of C. R. Ball. M. B. McKay is now located at the Oregon Bulb Earns, Boring, Oregon, R. #l. The bulb business in Oregon has an alluring future for the McKays and being in on the ground floor, their success is assured. The farm is located in the foothills of Ft. Hood, about twenty five miles from Portland. Florence Markin, Asst. Pathologist, Orono Maine, spent a few days in Madison following the Des Moines Meetings. End Page 7. Begin Page 8. I. E. Melhus for a number of years pathologist at Iowa State College Ames, has been placed in charge of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology on the retirement of Dr. Pammel. This is a well deserved recognition of Melhus' work and his many friends feel very much pleased. At a Melhus dinner held in connection with the recent winter meeting of the Phytopatholorical Society, some forty past and present students of his gathered for congratulations. P. W. Hiller was transferred to the Plant Pathology Department at Corvallis, Oregon on January 1. Since leaving Madison in February '29 Miller has been studying the perennial canker of apples, a cooperative project between the U. S. D. A. and Oregon Experiment Station. Now he will devote his time largely to the bacterial blight of walnuts which is also a joint project. Professor Barss has been interested in walnut diseases for a number of years and gave particular attention to laboratory studies on this organism when doing graduate work at Wisconsin two years ago. N. Nogendorff has a teaching position at the University of Toledo. His chief responsibility is for a course in natural science in the junior college. John Mentieth Jr. is Pathologist of the United States Golf Association, Washington, D. C. The past week he has been back on the campus giving a course of lectures before the Green Keepers' Short Course. W. J. Horse for a number of years director of the Maine Experiment Station has been confined to his home for a number of weeks because of high blood pressure and complications. Recent reports are very encouraging for his recovery. C. R. Orton has assumed the duties of plant pathologist at West Virginia, made vacant by the resignation of Giddings. C. E. Owens returned to Corvallis in September after a year's graduate work spent in our laboratory. His textbook, Principles of Plant Pathology, is being well received. Norma Pearson left our laboratory in September to teach botany in the Eastern Kentucky State Normal School, Richmond, Ky. Mrs. Emerson Pugh (Grace Wineland), 4920 Washington Street, Downer’s Grove, Illinois, returned to the laboratory a few days in November to assist in preparation of a manuscript for publication. R. D. Rands, Sugar Plant Investigations, U. S. D. A., especially cane root disease, returned in August from a five month trip to Java, attending as department delegate the Science and Sugar Congresses. He was most delighted to renew old acquaintances and see the advances in tropical agriculture. The change in tapping rubber trees that was advocated by Rands in 1922-23 has largely eliminated the hazard from the brown bast disease. However, the intimate cause of the disease remains as obscure as ever. En route, Rands made several side trips, i. e. Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States, Sumatra, Philippine Islands, and Hawaii. At Los Banos he had a conforence with Ocfemia and with Lee, Humphrey and others at Manila. End Page 8. Begin Page 9. At Honolulu, Carpenter, Godfrey, Mr. and Mrs. Linford, formed with Rands a typical Jones group, all happy and intensely interested in getting at the fundamentals of the causes of disease implants. Rands has a 1500 ft. movie film of his trip and will be glad to show it to friends at his home in Virginia. C. S. Reddy is associated with Melhus at Iowa and is in charge of the development of Sterocide. This is one of the new dusts used in treating seed corn for seedling blight control. O. A. Reinking, United Fruit Company, Boston, Mass., has been placed in charge of their tropical research department. Banana diseases command considerable attention. Otto spends most of his time in Cuba and Central America. He has been elected to membership in the Cosmos Club, Washington, D. C. E. C. Schultz, U. S. D. A. has been placed in charge of the potato mosaic studies of the Department from Maine to Oregon. W. H. Snell, Professor of Botany, Brown University, Providence, R. I. In the summer Snell works with Dr. York in the New York Conservation Department, interested especially in damage studies from pine blister rust, also Woodgate rust and sweet fern rust on Scotch pine. Baseball does not claim as much attention as formerly. For avocation he has turned to the Agarics, drawing and painting them in colors. E. A. Stokdyk, Expt. Station, Berkeley, California, is working on a research job in marketing fruit. Ellis got his degree at Wisconsin last June, majoring in Ag. Economics and minor in Plant Pathology. N. G. Teodoro, G. O. Ocfemia, and T. G. Fajardo all report pleasant and profitable connections in the Philippines. Teodoro is with the Phytopathology Research Laboratory, Poudacan, Manila. Ocifemia is with the University at Los Banos and Fajardo with the Bureau of Science at Manila. Ocfemia has in process of publication a manuscript on "The bunchy-top of Abaca or Manila hemp". W. H. Tisdale is Chief Pathologist for the recently organized Bayer-Semesan Company, Inc. The new Corporation has taken over the agricultural disinfectants divisions of the Bayer Company and the Dupont Company. Tisdale's headquarters will be at Wilmington, Delaware where the chemical laboratories are located. C. M. Tompkins formerly with the United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Sugar Plants located at Logan, Utah, gave us a call a few days ago. He and Mrs. Tompkins whom some of you may remember as Helen Fulton in Ag. Bacteriology are leaving the states in a few weeks for Sumatra where C. M. has accepted the position as Chief Pathologist with the Goodyear Rubber Plantations Company, Dolok Merangin, East Coast Sumatra. He is going out under a three year term and will be associated with J. R. Weir formerly with the U. S. Forest Pathology Department who is head of the Plant Research Department for the Rubber Company. E. F. Vestal is continuing his doctorate studies with Melhus at Ames, Iowa. End Page 9. Addenda Atanasoff, at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria and Skoric, at the University of Zagreb, Juzoslavia are planning gala days when Prof. and F. R. Jones visit them in May or June. Mrs. J. G. Dickson will sail for England in August to join Dr. Dickson on a vacation trip to Norway and Sweden. J. P. Godkin has resigned his position as Extension Pathologist at Virginia and is continuing his graduate studies with Kraus and Link at Chicago. Audrey Richards has become tired of rooming and boarding houses and has bought a house for herself on Regent Street, #1815, where she delights to entertain her friends. W. B. Tisdale is now head of the Plant Pathology Department of the Florida Experiment Station. For the past seven years he had been in charge of the Tobacco Experiment Station at Quincy. The tobacco growers were loath to release him but the larger Opportunities at Gainesville were too tempting. He will now supervise the plant disease work at the central station and the branch stations located at Bradington, Quincy, Monticello, Hastings, Cocoa, Lake Alfred, Belle Glade, Homestead and Plant City. R. B. Wilcox formerly located with the Experiment Station, Worcester, Ohio has been transferred to the Office of Horticultural Crops and Diseases, Washington, D. C. End Page 10.