Shiitake growers in Virginia are experiencing considerable diminution of the fruiting life of oak logs, due primarily to Ascomycetous, competing, wood-rotting, contaminating "weed fungi" that either invade the logs after trees are felled or are present in tree tissues before felling. We surveyed several shiitake farms, and, although the fungal flora differed among them, the predominant colonizing fungi were identified as Graphostroma platystoma (also identified as Diatrype stygma), Eutypa spinosa and Slereum aff. complicatum. Other less frequently observed fungi were Stereum ostrea, Schizophyllum commune, Hymenochaete sp., Poria sp., Hypoxylon atropunctatum and Hypoxylon punctulatum. Site and means of invasion (colonization) of these "weed fungi" were studied by monitoring endophytic fungal populations in stressed and non-stressed oak trees in the Jefferson National Forest Montgomery County, Virginia. Twenty-six samples from Poverty Creek (non-stressed) and 23 from Brush Mountain (stressed) were studied. Fifty percent of the samples from the non-stressed were sterile, 23% yielded Paecilomyces variota., and 27% were colonized by other fungi. On the other hand, 100% of the samples from stressed trees (Brush Mountain) were colonized by fungi; 74% yielded P. variotii and 26% by other fungi. Thirty samples from a pin oak (Quercus paluslris) plot at Virginia Tech (non-stressed) were 74% sterile, 16% colonized by an unidentified yeast, and 10% colonized by other unknown fungi. / Master of Science

M.S.

Master of Science

<p>Montgomery County, Virginia, is a southern Appalachian county founded in 1776. Throughout the county's antebellum history, as with most other regions of the South, four major population groups were visibly present. There were slaves, free blacks, white slaveowners, and white non-slaveowners. Little research has previously been conducted on the antebellum people of the Appalachian South. This work is a social history consisting of cross tabulations of data found in the county's manuscript census reports for 1850 and 1860. County court records also provide much useful information on the people and their activities before the Civil War. Together they form an invaluable source of information on antebellum mountain life as a forgotten segment of southern society. </p> / Master of Arts

A survey of the literature reveals little information concerning the aquatic fungi associated with submerged wood debris. During the past fifteen years several mycologists have studied such lignicolous fungi, but their efforts have been confined almost entirely to marine and brackish waters. It was thought that a study of similar organisms from fresh water would make a significant addition to our knowledge of aquatic fungi. This study involves the collection, identification, and description of freshwater lignicolous fungi from the area about Blacksburg, Virginia. To collect the fungi, sterilized panels of pine and poplar were submerged at six aquatic sites £or fifteen days or more. After submergence the wood was incubated in sterile moisture chambers and then examined with a dissecting microscope. Specimens of fungi found on the wood-surface were mounted and studied under high power. All of the collections are described in this paper, including those that could not be identified. Generic description have been adapted. Descriptions of species have been adapted and modified from the literature when they have seemed adequate, otherwise they are the author's own. Reproductive structures are illustrated. A key to the identified fungi is provided. The following fungi were identified and described: Dematiaceae - Alternaria sp., Bisporomyces chlamydosporis, Cacumisporium sp., Dictyosporium elegans, Dictyosporium sp., Gonytrichum macrocladum, Humicola sp., Leptographium sp., Monotospora megalospora, Piricauda sp., Septonema hormiscium, S. secedens, Sporidesmium caespitulosum, S. anglicum, Sporoschisma saccardoi, Trichocladium opacum; Moniliaceae - Arthrobotrys sp., Clathrosphaerina zalewski, Fusarium solani, Helicomyces roseus, Hobsonia mirabilis, Verticillium sp.; Tuberculariaceae - Bactrodesmium arnaudii; Sphaeropsidales - Aposphaeria agminalis, Asteromella sp., Coniothyrium sp., Stagonospora sp. (1), Stagonospora sp. (2); Actinomycetes - Nocardia sp.; Pyrenomycetes - Nectria sp. Two unidentified Dematiaceae and ten unidentified Pyrenomycetes were also collected and described. A comparison of the results of this study with the results of other investigations on aquatic fungi indicates the existence of a distinct aquatic mycoflora associated with wood. Aquatic Hyphomycetes have been extensively collected by other workers from submerged leaves and from pond and stream scum. None of the species, not even the genera, of those collections have been found in the present survey. No lignicolous Phycomycetes were found in the present survey, although aquatic Phycomycetes are known to grow on a vast array of substrates. The fresh-water population of lignicolous fungi may be fairly distinct from that of salt water. A survey of marine fungi reveals only five fungi - Alternaria sp., Dietyosporium elegans, Humicola sp., Trichocladium sp., Coniothyrium sp., Nectria sp. - that can be considered closely related to fungi found in the present study. This study provides some insight into the ecology of the fresh-water lignicolous fungi, although the study itself has beer, primarily taxonomic. Perhaps the most important problem now is to determine the actual habitat of these fungi. Research so far indicates only that they grow on wood and that their spores are carried in the water. Another problem is to investigate the nutrition of these organisms, to determine if they digest lignin and if they are unique in this regard. / Doctor of Philosophy

The problem involved in this study was that of selecting and developing a record keeping system for students of vocational agriculture to use in their supervised farming programs. The study was made in Montgomery County, Virginia. It involved the close cooperation of the Montgomery County Agriculture Teachers Association, which is composed of teachers from the Riner, Shawsville, Christiansburg, and Blacksburg Agriculture Departments. Through this study it was hoped that a more effective system of record keeping could be provided for supervised farming programs of students enrolled in vocational agriculture. After two years of work with different types of records and record books, the record book developed was adopted by the Montgomery County Agriculture Teachers Association. This book was first used for keeping supervised farming records during the calendar year 1955. The Montgomery County Teachers felt that the record book satisfactorily met all the criteria they bad previously set up for keeping farm records and recommended it for continued use in their classes of vocational agriculture. In March, 1958, after three years use by vocational agriculture students in Montgomery County, teachers of the four agriculture departments were asked to evaluate die record book. The record book scored high on all evaluations. Teachers found the book helpful tn their teaching for tbe following reasons: 1. The record book aided them in effectively teaching farm record keeping. 2. Students showed more interest in record keeping. 3. Supervised farming programs were strengthened. / Master of Science

"Factors Which Affect Mining of the Lower Mississippian Coals in Montgomery County, Virginia" ie a study ot the Merrimac and Langhorne seams of the Price formation in Montgomery County, Virginia. The main reference used in the review of literature was Bulletin XXV of the Virginia Geolog1cal Survey by Marius R. Campbell. The review of literature discusses geologic formations and structure and the coal as seen in various prospect and mine openinga by Campbell. The author visited mines during the field investigation and analyzed samples of coal collected at the mines. He discusses past mining operations in Montgomery County and has traced all available mine maps of past mining operations. These are filed as part of the thesis. Core drillings were also investigated by the author and reported depths of the coal in the Blacksburg syncline ere entered in Table III and Figure I. An investigation was also made into mining methods used in Montgomery County including a discussion of explosive gases encountered in mining the Merrimac seam. The author discusses the results of the investigation in the conclusions. Be ia convinced the coals of the Valley fields, although of poor quality, will becane increasingly valuable as anthracite deposit in Pennsylvania and bituminous deposits in Southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia are depleted. / Master of Science

The objectives of the project are fourfold: (l) to determine the annual muskrat harvest in a county of southwestern Virginia; (2) to determine the economic value of the annual muskrat harvest in a county in southwestern Virginia; (3) to determine, in so far as possible, those factors which limit a greater harvest of muskrats in southwestern Virginia and; (4) to compare the economic returns from muskrat in a southwestern Virginia county with the economic returns from muskrat in an eastern Virginia county or counties, It is hoped that data obtained in this investigation will serve as bases for 18 management recommendations which might increase the annual muskrat production on Virginia streams and marshes and which might, in some measure, bring recognition to, and stress the importance of, one of our most valuable animals. / Master of Science

The thesis of this project focuses on the making of place in architecture. The erection of a wall is the initial act in the creation of a sense of place. Three walls separate the homogeneous world of the countryside to establish a zone for a winery complex. / Master of Architecture

The project included surface runoff and groundwater drainage measurements in addition to determinations of physical and chemical characteristics from three watersheds located within the same drainage basin in Montgomery County, Virginia. Watershed number 1 included 80 acres of heavily forested land; number 2 consisted of 50 acres of pasture land and approximately 0.1 acre of barren land; and number 3 included 20 acres of brush land and steep embankments adjoining a paved highway. The research period covered from March 15 to July 1, 1974. Dry weather groundwater drainage was sampled on four separate occasions. Surface runoff was sampled during five storms. A single composite sample was made from individual samples taken periodically from each watershed. The amount of rainfall which was present as runoff from watershed number 3 averaged over 85 percent and was much greater than that from the other two watersheds. Significant concentrations of TKN and N0₃-N were found in both groundwater drainage and surface runoff from all three watersheds. Steep embankments contributed the largest amount of TKN, N0₃-N, and COD, averaging 0.290, 0.203, and 19.2 lb/acre respectively in surface runoff. Pasture and barren land contributed the most total phosphorus and suspended matter, with values averaging 0.084 lb/acre P0₄-P and 167 lb/acre SS. / Master of Science