Jw. Hilty et Pd. Peterson, LAMSONSCRIBNER,FRANK - BOTANIST AND PIONEER PLANT PATHOLOGIST IN THE UNITED-STATES, Annual review of phytopathology, 35, 1997, pp. 17-26
Frank Lamson-Scribner, in 1885, became the first scientist commissione
d by the United States Department of Agriculture with the responsibili
ty to study diseases of economic plants. His innovative approach estab
lished the foundation for applied plant pathology at the USDA. In an e
arly international cooperative effort in plant pathology, he detailed
the life history of the grape black rot pathogen. His early studies wi
th the Bordeaux mixture introduced the American farmer to the modern e
ra of chemical control. Scribner became the botanist and director of t
he University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station. He publish
ed the first book written on the subject of plant diseases in the Unit
ed States, and described a new nematode disease of potato. He asserted
that the practical value of plant pathology to farmers would only fol
low meticulous studies of the life history of pathogens.