SECRETARY'S REPORT. 51 



This committee, at the annual meeting, presented the following 



REPORT 



ON THE DISEASES OP VEGETATION. 



The committee to whom was assigned the subject, " Diseases 

 of Vegetation," have to regret, at the outset of their report, 

 the limited degree of observation which exists among the farmers 

 .of our State. Of the observers upon this subject who answered 

 the questions contained in our circular, not one has seen any 

 indications of disease manifested in any vegetable, except the 

 potato; and this, notwithstanding the universal blight which, 

 two years since, passed over the orange carot, the fact of the 

 increasing tendency to decay manifested by the different vari- 

 eties of the turnip, the general complaint in the year 1858 of a 

 softening of the parsnip, very similar to that described in the 

 report of that year upon the potato disease. 



Added to this should also be the fact that scarcely a field of 

 beans can be found (of the longest cultivated varieties) in which 

 marked symptoms of disease do not manifest themselves, first 

 in the pod, and thence tending to immaturity of the fruit. 



It is not the purpose of the committee, in this report, to enter 

 upon the description and history of particular diseases, nor 

 indeed do we suppose that most of the failures alluded to are 

 to be considered as at present presenting much cause for anxiety, 

 but as the tendency of all such evil is to increase until it shall 

 eventually interfere seriously with the profits of the farmer, we 

 feel it our duty to speak of the nature, causes and modes of 

 investigating disease in a plain and simple manner, hoping to 

 turn attention more generally and in a more rational manner 

 to this subject, prospectively so important. 



First, what is disease ? If we ask this question of the uned- 

 ucated mass of mankind, we get a thought like this, that disease 

 is something of a tangible character, floating about in the atmo- 

 sphere, ever seeking to break down and destroy life, and likely 

 to be successful, unless violently torn out of the system by some 

 counteracting process of cure, as the farmer, with his gun- 

 powder and his iron bar, forces the rock from its earthy bed. 



We are told that in the beginning God saw that every thing 

 which he created was good. Reason teaches us that if any 



