432 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



beauty of our phloxes, our loniceras and many other ornamental 

 plants ? 



The " Monthly Report " for October, 1812, contains an illus- 

 trated article by Thomas Taylor, microscopist of the Agricultural 

 Department, upon the onion blight and smut, which have proved 

 exceedingly destructive in Essex County, in this State. The loss 

 in a single season upon a four-acre field, belonging to Benjamin 

 P. Ware, Esq., of Swampscott, from which were obtained speci- 

 mens for examination, was estimated at $2,000. Mr. Taylor 

 regards it probable that the blight and smut are but different forms 

 of the same species, which is very tenacious of life, and develops 

 so fast as to ruin a promising field in three or four days. Mr. 

 Ware states that the common custom of growing onions on the 

 same land for several successive years cannot be safely continued 

 after the appearance of this pest, as the spores will spring up the 

 following year. The conservators of the agricultural interests of 

 the Commonwealth certainly ought to encourage the study of 

 microscopic botany at the State College, and ask for special inves- 

 tigations in regard to the habits and characteristics of so formida- 

 ble a foe to one of our most profitable crops. 



The mildew on the grape has been the cause of much annoyance 

 in this country, while in Europe it has inflicted an annual loss of 

 many million of dollars in the wine districts, where it has raged 

 for many years. In Madeira, where the vine is almost the only 

 source of revenue, it has caused the greatest distress, reducing 

 the people to actual starvation, so that contributions of food have 

 been sent to keep them alive. STiowering the infected foliage 

 with dilute solutions of sulphide of calcium, or sulphurous acid, 

 and dusting it with flowers of sulphur, have proved tolerably 

 effectual remedies ; but doubtless improvements are to be sought 

 in this direction, and M. Dumas recently proposed, in the French 

 Academy of Sciences, that the .government offer a prize of 

 $100,000 for a means of entirely preventing the ravages of this 

 destructive parasite. 



In Europe, wheat is often attacked by a disease called pepper- 

 brand, or bunt, which renders the grain disgusting in odor and 

 unfit for food. It has been found by botanists to be caused by a 

 fungus so minute that four million plants may occcupy a single 

 kernel of the grain. A similar disease, called smut and dust- 

 brand, affects oats and barley, often doing great damage. It has 

 been found very useful in preventing the attacks of these fungi 



