BLIGHT IN TURNIPS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8392, 10 April 1907, Page 6

BLIGHT IN TURNIPS.

LETTER FROM THE GOVERNMENT BIOLOGIST.

In connection with the blight which has attacked a number of crops of turnips in the Masterton district several specimens of.diseased turnips were forwarded to the Government Biologi3t, Mr.T. W. Kirk. The following letter, addressed by Mr Kirk to the Chief Inspector of Stock, Wellington, on the subject, has been forwarded to the local inspector of Stock:—

The specimens have undergone very careful exammalion. They were, on arrival, in a high state of putrefaction due to the specimens having been in an advanced state of decay when collected, but otherwise were satisfactory for investigation. The cause of the trouble is a fungus disease (Phoma napo-brassicae), which I have dealt with in Bulletin No. 14, and the subsequent rotting is only secondary as is shown by the presence of Phoma hyphae throughout the affected portions of the bulbs. Tne decay has been greatly hastened through the action of putrefying bacteria, which will have found the recent warm rains very conducive to th >ir development. At first it was thought that the trouble might be due to the White Rot of Turnips (Pifjudomonas destructans), but micro ; opical examination showed this not to be the case. This Phoma disease is apparently rapidly increasing iri the colony, and is now to be ranked as our most destructive fungus disease attacking turnips. The further consignment of diseased specimens sent by you to-day from the Masterton office, arrived in a much better state of preservation, and are typical specimens of the disease in which the bacterial rot has not as yet developed. They have probably been grown on drier ground.