A WILT-RESISTANT WATERMELON

 FOR FLORIDA

 By M. N. WALKER

 INTRODUCTION
 Fusarium wilt of watermelons has been known in the South-
ern states for more than 40 years, and at present it occurs
in practically all sections of the United States where water-
melons are grown commercially. Under conditions of heavy
soil infestation the disease may cause complete loss of the crop
and ordinary conditions of soil infestation are capable of caus-
ing from 20 to 50 percent loss of stand. In Florida the wilt
disease is widespread and on this account growers of large acre-
ages use virgin land each year to avoid ravages of the disease.
Since it is probable that a comparatively small percentage of
the soil becomes infested the first year, growers of smaller acre-
ages in some sections of the state replant the same land after
a period of five to seven years.
 Clearing and fencing new land each year involves heavy ex-
pense and, as the fields become located farther from the high-
ways and railroads, there is also an increase in the costs of
transporting equipment, labor and the crop. In addition to
these factors of increased costs of production, which are di-
rectly attributable to the wilt disease, there is the further eco-
nomic loss occasioned by the abandonment of fields that cannot
be planted profitably to some other crop. Because of the condi-
tion of agriculture at the present time, the large acreage of
land cleared annually for watermelons in the Leesburg area
cannot be used to advantage for other crops, with the result
that thousands of acres once used for this crop have been aban-
doned to the growth of scrub oak, which in a few years will
make it very expensive to re-clear this land for any purpose.
The continuous use of new land in this area has practically de-
pleted the supply and, unless a marketable, resistant variety
is grown, the industry in this particular area must decline.
 Recognizing these facts, certain growers foresaw that unless
a satisfactory control of the wilt disease was developed Lake
County ultimately would lose a valuable industry. Consequently,
these men were instrumental in securing an appropriation by
the Legislature of 1929, which provided funds for a study of