Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


down into a brittle, worthless mass. Bolls attacked later may
have but one or two locks infected. The infected locks fail to de-
velop and the bolls become lop-sided, a condition characteristic of
anthracnose. The lint of such locks becomes somewhat darkened
in color and of low quality. When bolls somewhat rotted by bac-
terial blight are attacked by anthracnose a general, uncharacter-
istic rot develops. Other fungi often accompany anthracnose and
further its injuries, and it is possible that secondary fungi are
often credited with damage really due to anthracnose. Bolls dam-
aged by anthracnose are shown in Fig. 9.

 CONTROL
 Since cotton anthracnose is largely a seed-borne disease and
since the spores and mycelium are comparatively short-lived, the
control of the disease is a relatively easy matter. It has been
found that the disease dies out in the seed if they are kept for two
years or more and that the germination of the seed is not impaired.
A period of only one year is sufficient to greatly reduce infective
material in the seed, but longer periods of storage entirely destroy
it. The seed should be stored in a dry place, otherwise, they will
heat or rot and much of their germinative power will be lost. It
is probable that seed houses are able to furnish seed that have
been kept a sufficient time to eliminate the anthracnose fungus.
 If, in connection with the planting of disease-free seed, a ro-
tation is practiced to obviate the possibility of the disease carry-
ing over in debris in the field the disease can be entirely eradicated.
Where a farmer desires to save his own seed, the seed should be
selected only from healthy bolls in fields or sections of fields show-
ing the least disease, anthracnose as well as other diseases. The
seed should be ginned separately from the main crop in clean
gins in order to prevent the contamination of the seed to be saved
with spore or fungus material from the main crop.

 MINOR DISEASES
 BOLL ROTS
 Although there are a number of species of Fusarium causing
boll rots in Florida, by far the most common one is caused by
Fusarium moniliforme Sheld. This fungus is extremely widely
distributed in the United States, as well as in foreign countries,
and causes losses on a number of hosts, one of the more important
being corn. The fungus is seemingly unable to penetrate unin-