1889.] FUNGI INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 189 



and put it under a bell jar, with a little water so as to get a 

 humid temperature, and let the thing develop so as to see 

 wliether the fungus would develop and form its spores, and 

 in that way get the whole history of the plant. 



Prof. Brewer. Prof. Johnson has looked that matter up 

 within a year or two. He examined a whole lot of potatoes. 

 I think you will find a description of his investigations in one 

 of the reports of the experiment station, and what his con- 

 clusion was. 



Mr. Robinson. I want to find out whether planting a 

 potato that has that scab upon it will produce the same dis- 

 ease again, if it is a disease. 



Mr. Burr. I was speaking of an experiment that I tried 

 with sulphur on potatoes. I had a man at work for me, and 

 gave him a milk-pan full of sulphur when he was planting 

 potatoes, and told him to put about a tablespoonful in each 

 hill, and mix it thoroughly with the soil. When he came to 

 dig tlie potatoes, he called my attention to the appearance of 

 them, and where this sulphur was put there was very little of 

 that appearance there is on that potato, — I don't know 

 what to call it, — and the potatoes there were very much 

 smoother. Whether from the effects of the sulphur or not I 

 cannot say, but I think it must have been, because you could 

 see that where the sulphur went, the potatoes were smoother. 



Mr. Jennings. I would like to make a little further in- 

 quiry in regard to onions, because that is a crop that concerns 

 us a good deal. The speaker said that smut might be 

 transmitted in the seed, so that it might be carried in the 

 seed from one smutty piece to another piece that was com- 

 paratively or entirely clear from the smut. Now, it is a fact, 

 that if we take onion sets, no matter how small or how 

 large, and set them out, if they grow on smutty ground, no 

 matter, we never see an instance of smut in those sets. A 

 good many are raising onions from set onions. We take very 

 small ones ; if we can get them as small as peas, so much 

 the better. By sowing the seed very thickly indeed, eight or 

 ten pounds to the acre, and getting very small onions, we 



