346 Missouri State Horticidtiiral Society. 



GRAPE ROT. 



The following article, in two parts, I clip from the N. Y. Sun. 



It was my intention to abridge it, but the whole thing is so well 



written, both in a scientific point of view and as well as exceedingly 



plain, that to meddle with it might spoil it. I deem it worth a 



year's subscription to every man who grows grapes, and it should 



be carefully read and preserved for reference. The item where he 



recommends pinning the paper sacks over the lateral branch instead 



of around the stem of the bunch is quite valuable. I never lost 



any bunches, as I nearly always used his plan as recommended ; 



not because I thought of the danger by storms, but just because it 



so happened. I feel satisfied that our readers will not begrudge 



the space these long articles take up. The destroying of the evil 



corresponds with the plan I once gave of cutting off the old vines 



at the ground and burning everything that might contain any of 



the disease in it, as it was always my opinion that the cause was 



just what our friend's article describes it as being. 



S. Miller. 



PREVENTION OF GRAPE ROT. 



To have a just appreciation of tlie pbilosophy and probable 

 efficacy of devices suggested and tried for prevention of rot and 

 mildew on the grape it is requisite that the nature of these diseases 

 be clearly understood. 



Their characteristics as members of the great family of 

 parasitic fungi have been described, and it would seem scarely 

 necessary to begin again at the elements of the subject in con- 

 tinuing its discussion. 



Germ diseases and the nature of disease germs are com- 

 paratively new subjects of scientific investigation, and knowledge 

 in relation to them is as yet chiefly limited to scientific inquirers. 

 Many of those affected, either in pocket or in person, by these 

 mysterious influences are too busy in making a living and too 

 much engrossed with politics to pay attention to matters which 

 they cannot readily understand. To know certain things, a pre- 

 liminary knowledge of certain other things is indispensable, and 

 thisknowledge does not seem within the scope or to be one of the 

 consequences of the average education. 



As I wish to be understood, I shall give a few elementary ob- 

 servations as to the known causes of rot and mildew. 



These are ascertained to be the visible symptoms of the de- 

 structive depredation of invisible parasitic — or saprophytic — fungi. 



