Abstract
A NEW bulletin (No. 74) issued by the Ministry of Agriculture (H.M. Stationery Office, Is.) is concerned with two diseases of swedes. Experiments with pure culture have shown that canker, which affects the seed-bearing plant, and dry rot which attacks the roots, are both due to the same fungus, Phoma Lingam. This fact is of importance, as infected seed would be likely to result in an infected root crop. The disease is not serious in England, but has become prevalent in New Zealand; and since most of the seed used there is obtained from Great Britain the question of infection is important. Methods of seed sterilisation have been sought with no great success, but evidence has been obtained that weeds afford a serious source of infection. Good cultivation would, therefore, seem as necessary as clean seed if spread of the infection is to be avoided.
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Diseases of Swedes. Nature 135, 650 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135650e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135650e0