1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



145 



in their favor. I never saw the Hke before. 

 The trees were alive with aphis. The only 

 scarce things on the trees were leaves, there 

 being hardly enough to afford " standing room " 

 for all the dusky guests. However,not being a con- 

 vert to the doctrine of " squatter sovereignty," 1 

 declared war, and failing to decrease the num- 

 bers by ordinary means, I compounded soft soap 

 and carbolic acid, and with a single application 

 exterminated the enemy. 



[It has always been a matter of surprise with 

 us that those Avho suffer froin the ravages of in- 

 sects do not make more use of carbolic acid. 

 Though so destructive to the lower forms of in- 

 sect and plant life, it is innocuous as against the 

 higher.— Ed. G. M.] 



KEEPING TOMATOES. 



BY W. F. BASSETT, HAMMONTON, N. J. 



The best success I ever had in keeping toma- 

 toes was by cutting the vines off at the surface 

 of the ground, or pulling up by the roots and 

 trimming off" all the foliage and hanging them 

 up in a light cellar. More of them ripened 

 than in any other way, and the quality was bet- 

 ter. This was in Massachusetts, and my cellar 

 was not near so dry as here. I see no reason, 

 however, why they should not do equally well 

 here, but we have had such an abundance and 

 Tariety of fruit that we care less for tomatoes. 



THE MAIN GRAPE. 



BY J. M. H., DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



I notice by the Monthly that this grape is 

 " being pushed again." I have been acquainted 

 with it from its first introduction to the present 

 time; have seen it at fairs, exhibited by Mr. 

 Main himself; have fruited it on the same trellis 

 with the Concord ; have watched th© growth of 

 the vine from the starting of the leaves in 

 Spring until it ripened its purple bunches in 

 Autumn ; have exhibited it side by side with 

 Concord, and I have tasted and tested it with fruit- 

 growers, and fruit committees, and the general 

 opinion was — that it was a Concord — " only this 

 and nothing more." I once attended a fair and 

 exhibited a plate of Main grapes, and beside it a 

 plate of Concords. I had some conversation 

 with a gentleman interested in the sale and prop- 

 agation of the Main grape, in relation to the 

 identity of the two. I claimed that there was 



no perceptible difference, while the only argu- 

 ment he could bring to bear to prove a differ- 

 ence was, that the Main had smaller seeds. 

 Such a slight claim as that would indeed puzzle 

 the Patent-Office clerk who attempted to dis- 

 tinguish between ]\[r. Bull's and Mr. Main's 

 "patent," should they attempt to "throw 

 around" their grapes "horticultural protection." 

 [The exposure of this matter was long ago 

 made by one of the correspondents of the 

 Gardener's Monthly. Only that so many new 

 readers have been added of late years, it would 

 be unnecessary to say anything more. — Ed.G. M.] 



PEAR TREE BLIGHT. 



BY W. FOSTER, LOUISIANA, MO. 



Reading with much interest the communica- 

 tion of Mr. M. B. Bateham, in the Monthly for 

 March, and admitting fungi to be present when- 

 ever blight appears, it would seem that a prima 

 facie case is made out, viz.: — that fungi are the 

 caiise of this deadly disease. The expression of 

 Mr. Meehan, made before the United States 

 Pomological Society, that " fire-blight is of fun- 

 goid origin," is certainly high authority, but it 

 leaves the pear-grower to ask — what causes the 

 plant growth called fungus? Dr. Salisbury 

 strikes the key note when he says, that " the 

 spores of the blight fungus are in the sap of 

 the tree, and under favorable influence, start 

 into growth." Now, are these sporidic cells or 

 germs found in healthy sap ? The microscope 

 answers, with an unqualified — no ! It is ad- 

 mitted that two opposing forces exist in all liv- 

 ing things, chemical and vital. Whenever the 

 chemical force obtains the mastery over the 

 vital, the plant or animal dies, and each has its 

 mode of dying. The circulating fluid deter- 

 mines the health or disease of plants, as well a* 

 animals. The food furnished the plant deter- 

 mines the character of its circulation, as well as 

 its appetite. That the pear tree has an appetite 

 which the spongioles are extremely sensitive to, is 

 no longer matter of speculation, but is as fixed a 

 fact as any other in horticulture, e. g., remove 

 the earth under a health ly pear tree in bearing 

 till fibrous roots are reached ; fill in a little 

 moist earth to protect them ; then pour in a so- 

 lution of sulphate of copper, and fill up with 

 earth. Ten days thereafter test for copper in 

 the sap, and none will be found. If the tree has 

 had its tiue appetite previously destroyed by 



