The banana blight in Central America threatened for a while to be as
destructive as the chestnut blight in this country. It was due
admittedly to an attack by soil fungi, but no fungicide to foliage or to
the soil served its purpose. However, the proper restoration of
bacterial life in soils to keep the soil fungi in check proved
effective. This was a matter not of the presence or absence of any one
inorganic nutrient, but of restoring to soils the balance of fertility,
an abundance of organic matter as food for bacteriae. Dr. George D.
Scarseth, West Lafayette, Ind.[4], is one of those largely responsible
for correcting this epidemic. His experience may prove useful to nut
growers, so that they may not live in constant fear of another blight
epidemic such as the one that exterminated our chestnuts only a
generation ago.