1882. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



383', 



the vine that had formerly occurred, and Prof. 

 McMurtrie, chemist to the department, believed 

 that if the soils were not exhausted of the chemi- 

 cal constituents necessarj' to the health of the 

 vines, there would be little trouble from other 

 enemies. It is proper to say that we only give 

 our own impression of the views of these several 

 distinguished gentlemen after reading the re- 

 porters' notes, which we should suppose, as 

 already suggested, barely do the speakers justice. 



The American.— This weekly, of Philadelphia— 

 always interesting, has added to its value by en- 

 gaging Prof Angelo Heilprin of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, to report 

 the proceedings of the different sections, which 

 now only instruct the members present, and 

 remain dead on the minute books. The Acad- 

 emy has grown to such proportions that there is 

 not time for the researches made in every branch 

 of science to be introduced at the usual Tuesday 

 evening meetings, the proceedings of which 

 alone find a place in the regular daily papers. 

 Botany, mineralogy, entomology, biology, and 

 other important divisions of science now have 

 to have separate sections formed for them, and 

 an immense amount of knowledge is brought 

 out in them, which now, through the enterprise 

 of the American, will be available to the public 

 as well as the members. 



The New York Independent. — It is a well 

 known fact that many of the so-called denomi- 

 national religious papers seem to think their 

 duty finished when they furnish their readers 

 with denominational news, or with matter 

 bearing on strictly theological topics. On the 

 other hand, the strictly secular paper too often 

 deals with politics, or silly gossip, so nearly exclu- 

 sively, as to almost nauseate those who wish to 

 keep pace with general intelligence. As a 

 general rule the subscribers to these papers have 

 to subscribe to a pile of special journals if they 

 would keep pace with the discoveries of the 

 times in the highest departments of mental 

 culture which bears on human progress. The 

 Independent is a striking exception to the general 

 rule. While it is to a certain extent denomina- 

 tional in its teaching, it extends its attentions to 

 every branch of human intelligence, and its 

 wonderful success has, no doubt, been owing to 

 the fact that no cultivated person can take up 

 the paper without becoming wiser and better 

 before he lays it down. 



Fungi Injurious to Vegetation. — By Dr. 



Byron D. Halstead. Reprinted from the pro- 

 ceedings of the Connecticut State Board of 

 Agriculture, 1882. 



Horticulturists and agriculturists are not yet 

 fully awake to the immense amount of injury 

 they suffer from the minute plants of the lower 

 order of vegetation known as microscopic fungi. 

 It is barely a quarter of a century since not 

 merely practical men, so-called, but even men 

 of science firmly believed that fungi never ex- 

 isted except on diseased vegetation. Scientific 

 men teach us difl"erently now; but there are 

 some excellent practical men, who still doubt 

 whether these little plants are the cause rather 

 than the followers of disease. It is an extremely 

 important question to the practical man. If 

 these almost invisible plants be not the cause of 

 disease, it is not worth while to care anything 

 about them ; but if they be, then we must wage 

 war on them, and the best knowledge in an 

 attack on an enemy is that which relates to his 

 habits and all his secret ways. This chapter by 

 Mr. Halstead is well worth reading, both by the 

 true believers in deleterious fungus agency, and 

 by the infidel. The former will perceive how 

 much is yet to be added to the knowledge we 

 have already gained; the latter may point to 

 the diff'erences of opinion among learned men, 

 but will surely see that something has been 

 gained over old notions, and that at least it is 

 time for him to go over the ground anew. He 

 may ask himself why, if smut and similar 

 organisms be a fungus, and yet not the cause of 

 disease, why he has been for just two hundred 

 years this season, as Prof. Brewer tells us here, 

 trying to destroy it by steeping his seeds in 

 brine, copperas and all sorts of steeps and 

 washes ? 



An interesting discussion followed Mr. Ha!- 

 sted's remarks on the ergot (Claviceps purpurea) 

 and the smut in Indian corn (Ustilago Maydis), 

 It is beyond dispute that ergot has powerful 

 medical properties ; but we find by this discus- 

 sion that abortion in cows is claimed for the 

 smut as well as for the ergot by the farmers in 

 Connecticut. It is but fair to say that after 

 balancing the points brought out by the discus- 

 sion, the smut seems at least more innocent than 

 they suppose. 



A very interesting inquiry is suggested by the 

 discussion, namely, how do the spores of fungi 

 enter the plant? The prevailing impression 

 with leading mycologists is that they germinate 

 on the exterior, and then grow into the plant, 



