Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, December 02, 1978, Image 115

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    INTRODUCTION SALE, 1979 MODELS
15,000 Watt
Over 40 Automatics
Over 100 Portables
15 KW Onan, PTO
15 KW Katolite, PTO
3.8 KW Katolite, PTO
LEONARD MARTIN CO.
330 FONDERWHITE RD., LEBANON, PA 17042
OVER 50 IN STOCK
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717-274-1483
NEWARK, Del. - Out of the
very large number of
pathogens which regularly
bombard any plant in the
environment, there may be
ony a few which make it
diseased. Why is the plant
susceptible only to these
few? And what makes it able
to resist all the other
pathogens to which it is
exposed?
If scientists could come up
with the answers to these
questions, they’d be well on
the road to developing a way
to induce disease resistance
in food crops - possibly
through improved plant
breeding or with the aid of
some non-toxic resistance-
RAT
n Stock 15-500 KW
n Stock 1.5-125 KW
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SED UNITS
Disease
POWER
3 KW Katolite, Auto.
10 KW Datan, Auto,
(new)
resistance studied in plants
triggering compound with
otherwise innocuous effects
on the environment. Either
solution could have far
reaching benefits.
The first step in finding the
answers is to leam more
about the biochemical in
teractions between plants
and bacteria. Plants are
thought to have two ways of
protecting themselves
against disease: a general
defense mechanism and a
more specific form of im
munity such as that found in
certain resistant varieties of
a crop. “We don’t know
exactly how this immunity
works,” says Dr. Myron
Sasser, a plant pathologist at
Watt
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, Decembtr 2,1978-
the Delaware Agricultural
Experiment Station. “But
when a pathogen attacks,
there is a sudden collapse of
the affected plant cell.”
This hypersensitive
reaction is thought by some
researchers to be a defense
mechanism which may be
casually related to disease
resistance. Sasser is looking
for an explanation of the way
this mechanism works,
using bacteria on tobacco
plants (the “white mice” of
the plant lab).
Speaking before fellow
plant pathologists at the
recent annual meeting of the
American Phytopathological
Society in Tuscon, Ariz., the
University of Delaware
researcher described a
study he conducted recently
of the effects of 50 antibiotics
on bacteria in relation to the
triggering of the plant
disease-resistance mechan
ism. Since different an
tibiotics are active at dif
ferent stages of the infection
process, and since some are
Butler woman wins
nat. Grange award
DENVER, Colo. - Debbie
Phelan of St. John,
Michigan, and a student at
the University of Michigan,
took top honors m the 1978
National Grange Sewing
Contest. Miss Phelan was
awarded $lOOO by the
National Grange women’s
activities department during
the Grange’s Annual Session
being held November 13-20.
The Grange also an
nounced the grand award
winners of the' 1978
Needlework Contest. The
winners are Mrs. William
Adamosky, Butler, Pa.;
Helen Rewinkel,
Orangevale, Cal.; Rose
Weeks, White Swan, Wash.;
and Edna Muran,
SNOJAX
BOX 3098 SHIREMANSTOWN, PA 17011
Phone (717) 761-1863
active on bacteria while
others are active on plants,
these compounds can be
useful tools in explaining
how resistance works.
Sasser found both bac
terial RNA synthesis and
protein synthesis to be
essential steps before the
plant defense system can
become operative. “The
suggestion is rather
strong,” he reports, “that
a bacterial protein causes
the activation of the plant
defense system, and that the
bacterial protein is produced
in response to some factor
encountered m the nonhost
plant.”
The pathologist expects
his findings to be useful to
others studying disease
resistance m plants. He is
presently investigating one
particular antibiotic from
the group screened which
appears to have a reversible
effect on the resistance
mechanism, and hopes to
publish resiilts of this work
sometime next Spring.
-Amsterdam, N.Y.
They each received
$5OO. Ten thousand entries
were received in the 1978
National Grange Stuffed Toy
Contest, all of which will be
given to children’s hospitals.
First place national winners
in the contest were (dolls,
junior) Denise Brown, Metz,
W.Va., (animals, junior)
Tracey Walker, Pennside,
Pa., (originality, junior)
Michelle Murphy, Mouth of
Wilson, Va., (doll, teen)
Mary Jo Singkofer, Cor
vailhs, Ore., (animals, teen)
Joyce Atoulikian, Parma,
Ohio, (originality, teen)
Laurel Rcsene, St. Paul,
Minn., (dolls, adult)
Margaret Littleton, Lenoir
City, Tenn., (animals,
originality, adult) Ethel
Shorn, Oak Ridge, Tenn. All
three contests are open to
both members and non
members of the Grange.
Mrs. Flo Carter of
Elmendorf, Texas was
selected Women’s Activities
Director of the Year.
• INEXPENSIVE
115