Show wilt harms dent also sweet corn resistant varieties needed to combat disease that Is now spreading prepare prepared by the united state states department ot of agriculture service bacterial bacteria wilt of corn or stewarts disease formerly believed harmful only to sweet meet corn affects field dent corn too in much of the corn belt and may mav reduce the yield as much as 25 per cent corn breeding seems to offer the best defence against bacterial wilt the chief method of preventing losses Is to plant resistant varieties the breed ing of resistant varieties is already under way and the department has leveral several strains which show resistance the bacterial wilt attacked sweet corn more severely last year than it had in recent years but for the last two years the disease has been in creasing in fields of dent corn the disease Is most prevalent on dent corn in illinois ohio and indiana but bu it occurs throughout the corn belt corn disease specialists have known that the disease could occur in field corn but they beli believed eed it comparatively harmless to dent corn now a sur vey of 06 66 illinois fields by several of the department workers shows that the wilt definitely injures dent corn in several respects the chief dam age comes from the wilt ailt spitting the leaves and thus cutting down the area of healthy leaf surface this results in weakening eak ening the plant so that it Is more easily attacked by stalk rots weakening tl e plant making it less re distant to cold weakening the stalks which break more easily and frequent iv lowering the nield lowering loverl ng the quality despite intensive study bacterial wilt remains a stubborn corn disease problem regarding many phases of which the scientists have only limited knowledge |