321 Wisconsin State Hobticultural Society. 



he cannot afford to be ignorant. The high science of one decade 

 it must be remembered, becomes, in the course of three or four 

 decades, the popular belief, and is then honored with the name of 

 common sense, just as though not more than half a century pre- 

 viously, people had not been considered fools for believing just 

 such things. Only within a few years have fungi been recognized 

 as the cause of disease in plants, and there is a growing tendency 

 to account for almost all obscure plant diseases by saying that 

 they are caused by fungi. If a disease suddenly makes its ap- 

 pearance, and inquiry is made as to its cause, up jumps Dr. A., 

 and says, "it is a fungus; I have found some mycelium." Or 

 Prof. B. startles the community with the announcement that he 

 has found " spores." Neither Dr. A. nor Prof. B. tell the public 

 to what form the mycelium and spores belong ; nor do they ap- 

 parently know that it is almost impossible to find a leaf or stem 

 in which, or on which, there are not some traces of mycelium or 

 spores. Tlie spores and mycelia of the common mould are every- 

 where; and if one is determined to see in fungus the cause of all 

 diseases, he has not to look long before finding them in abundance, 

 such as they are. It savors of quackery to make a little bit of 

 mycelium, or a few spores of some ordinary mould, explain the 

 appearance of wide-spread and devastating diseases. 



A few years ago everything was laid to insects by the agri- 

 cultural quacks ; but as a knowledge of entomology spread, that 

 became dangerous ground, and they then took up fungi, about 

 which the public were not so well informed. Before long, it is to 

 be hoped that there will be such a general knowledge of the habits 

 of fungi, that the war cry, " Mycelium ! Spores ! " will have lost its 

 terrors. Where then will the quacks take refuge ? At the lowest 

 limits of the vegetable kingdom ; some would say below the low- 

 est limits is a large group of very minute beings called "Bac- 

 teria." They are very small ; they are found everywhere ; their 

 study taxes the highest powers of the first scientific men. It will 

 be a long time before the scientific world will know much about 

 them, and longer still before the public do. Without being a 

 prophet it will be safe to predict that within the next ten years 

 the agriculturist will have to listen to an immense amount of 



