PRACTICE IN RUSTIC WORK. 



some friendly correspondent of the JInrticitUurist. But I can discover no cause 

 that satislic's nic, nnd I learn nothinc: from others; I have therefore decided to 

 take out all but one next season, and in the mean lime thouf^hl I would be^r your 

 indulifonce to inquire of your corresi)undents if aiiythiiif^ has been discovered in 

 ri'lation to the tliseasc. I liave watcliod them very closely, and invariably notice 

 spots of brown, wliieh under a powerful i)ocket lens, ajtpear to be fungi, to make 

 their aj^ijcarance a few weeks before the fruit cracks. It seems as if it destroyed 

 the vital power of the skin wherever it is produced, and as it thus ceases to grow 

 it has no alternative but to crack open as the other parts grow and expand in its 

 vicinity. Tlie experience of the jiast two seasons seems to confirm this view of 

 the cause. The season before the past was a very dry one ; and I thiidc there 

 were fewer cracks than I ever observed before, and some half dozen fruit were 

 perfect ; this year being an unusually wet one, the fruit is cracked in every direc- 

 tion, and nearly to the core. Now I suspect that if the skin has been indurated 

 by the fungus I have described, the wet weather being favorable to the swelling 

 of fruit, would necessarily make the cracks deeper than they would be in a dry 

 one. I would like to know whether any of your correspondents have had similar 

 ideas. On the one specimen I propose to save, I intend next season to try the 

 effect of some of the washes of sulphur found so efficacious by grape growers in 

 destroying the vine mildew, which, I think, will test fully whether the disease is 

 or is not caused by a fungus. I fear it will spread to other kinds. I have a 

 young specimen of Passe Colmar which is now in its first bearing year with less 

 than a dozen fruit, and all cracked, though not badly. I never heard of this 

 variety cracking before, and began to be a little alarmed ; but a friend tells me 

 that in wet seasons some pears are liable to crack somewhat, especially Winter 

 Nelis, without, however, injuring them to any great degree. 



In supposing it possible that a fungus may cause the cracking of the butter 

 pear, I am aware that I am opposing the belief of all the scientific men of our 

 country, whom I think invariably believe that fungi are the consequence and not 

 the cause of the disease ; but so far as I have read the history of the vine disease 

 in Europe, 1 think it is granted there quite generally, that it is caused by a small 

 mould they call Oidium Tuckeri ; and I cannot help thinking that there appears 

 little disease in the fruit of our Cockspur Ilawthorn previous to the attack of the 

 yellow fungus which so disfigures them. 



PRACTICE IN RUSTIC WORK. 



BY AN AMIABLE CONTRIBUTOR. 



There are some people who must be always cutting, notching, or carving with 

 a knife. Sometimes they seek to perpetuate their precious memory by the forma- 

 tion of certain well-known letters in the bark of a tree, or any other surface which 

 happens to be near. When their hands are not otherwise occupied, almost every 

 bench can testify to the interesting fact that the owner of some name beginning 

 with " A. B.," or " R. W.," once marked the spot with his presence, and left an 

 impression behind him. Others, ambitious to give a touch of art to their produc- 

 tions, are absorbed for many a long hour in developing the head of a monkey, or 

 a dog, on the top of what is highly esteemed as a walking-stick. There is really 

 no limit to the number of juvenile ship carpenters, all more or less distinguished 

 for cutting out their smacks, cutters, schooners, and other merchantmen destined 

 to scale the mountain waves of the nearest ditch. 



