]N'ew York Agricultural Experiment Station. 157 



to 24 11, the most common size being 15 ,a: (2) A fungus with 

 unbranched, colorless, seemingly non-septate hyphre having a 

 diameter of about 2 //. (Plate VI, Fig. 3.) Neither fungus 

 showed any fructification and neither one was determined. 



Subsequently to our study of the fungus in June Mr. Hallock^- 

 prepared for publication a brief article on the subject, which 

 appeared in the Rural Xew Yorker for July 27, 1901. In addition 

 to the circumstances which we have already related, he states 

 that the tile drain was put into place in the autumn of 1900 to 

 replace a stone drain, which, although it had not run as freely 

 as it should, had, nevertheless, never become completely clogged 

 during the several years in which it was in operation. The new 

 tile drain was made of three-inch porous tiles and worked all 

 right during the fall and winter, but clogged in the spring at a 

 time when there was plenty of rain to keep the drain flushed out. 

 In the fall, at cider making time, considerable pomace is run off 

 through the drain, and had it clogged at that time it would have 

 been less strange. 



In this connection it is interesting to note that Mr. Beak's 

 barnyard drain at South Onondaga had been in place fifteen 

 years before it became clogged. He removed the fungus by 

 mechanical means. In his recent letter to us he states that he 

 did not use the sulphuric acid recommended by the Country Gen- 

 tleman; neither did he use any other chemical, and yet the drain 

 has not clogged since the spring of 1896. Last spring he again 

 saw indications of the presence of the fungus, but by turning a 

 large quantity of water into the upper end of the drain he suc- 

 ceeded in washing out the fungus and prevented clogging. 



Mr. Hallock's method of clearing his drain of fungus by the 

 use of copper sulphate is so simple and so cheap that it is 

 worthy of recommendation in all cases of this kind. Sulphuric 

 acid, carbolic acid and other strong chemicals are also destruc- 

 tive to fungi and may, perhaps, answer equally well. 



We think it likely that the clogging of drains by fungus may 

 be more common than is generallv known. 



'=H[allock], H. H. Blue Vitriol Cleans a Drain. Rural New Yorker, 

 60:515. 



