58 BOARD OF AGEICULTUEE. 



London are twelve thousand acres of laud devoted to the 

 raising of vegetables, and six thousand acres to the production 

 of fruit ; and even in this limited area the quick-witted market 

 gardeners have learned that each locality has its peculiar 

 adaptations, and the principal crop of each is regulated accord- 

 ingly, so that the main supply of each variety is grown in one 

 particular section. In like manner, the finest damsons in 

 England are said to ripen in Cheshire ; and near Paris, one 

 town in a favored site, Montrcuil, sends to market remarkably 

 fiue peaches, to the exclusion almost of those from other local- 

 ities. Doubtless many similar instances of special adaptations 

 in raising fruits or vegetables occur in this countr}'. The im- 

 portance of attending to this subject will not be questioned. 



The necessity for the application of botanical knowledge to 

 agriculture is again clearly shown by the recent inv-estiga- 

 tions concerning those microscopic fungi, which are among the 

 most destructive enemies of cultivated plants, and often sud- 

 denl}' blast the hopes of the farmer and gardener. The 

 Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, for 1871, con- 

 tains an interesting article on the fungi found on the fruit of 

 the pear, tomato and grape, and the foliage and bark of the 

 peach, the vine and the lilac, with excellent illustrations 

 and many useful suggestions respecting their nature and 

 treatment. The disease called the yellows, which — though 

 unknown in Europe, Avhere more shelter is given to fruit- 

 trees — has almost entirely deprived Massachusetts and the 

 whole of New England of the most delicious of our fruits, 

 appears to be only the result of the growth of a fungus, 

 which our peculiar climate fosters. That careful observation 

 and experiment will devise some means for its suppression, 

 there can be no reasonable doubt. Can we afford to neglect 

 longer the means which are necessary to accomplish this most 

 desirable result, as well as to aid us in preserving from 

 similar destruction, the foliage and beauty of our phloxes, our 

 loniceras and many other ornamental plants ? 



The "^Monthly Report" for October, 1872, contains an illus- 

 trated article by Thomas Tajlor, microscopist of the Agri- 

 cultural 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. 



