229 



soil, Ijiug low ; they are therefore uni'avorable for the highest develop- 

 ment of i)ear-tree culture. It has been only by persistent effort that the 

 fruit-trees on the Department grounds have been brought to their 

 present highly improved state. 



Barry, on fruit-gardening, says, page 3G1, that " Blight has never 

 been known to originate on the dry, sandy loam of Long Island, not 

 even with heavy manuring, the drought of mid-summer always ripening 

 the shoots vso completely that the leaves drop off long before frost com- 

 mences." The true source of blight seems to have its origin principally 

 in the action of frost on unripe wood, which may arise from a com- 

 bination of causes. 



The exact conditions of growth, or degree of maturity most favorable 

 to the development of the pear-tree blight or fungi, will form the sub- 

 ject of further investigations, with a view to assist tlie practical culti- 

 yator to counteract, if possible, this troublesome and so frequently fatal 

 disease. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 



International council on the cattle plague. — Dr. Bouley, an 

 eminent physiologist and veterinarian, who has given special attention 

 to the cattle-plague, has lately made a very important report to the 

 Academy of Sciences of Paris, of the proceedings of the International 

 Sanitary Convention, held March 16 of the present year at Vienna. This 

 had" for its special object the determination of the best methods of pre- 

 venting the cattle-plague, and the taking into consideration the question 

 of establishing proper sanitary regulations in regard to the cattle-traffic 

 between the countries represented in the convention. Delegates were 

 present from eleven states at the convention, namely, Germany, Austro- 

 Hungary, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Boumanian Princi- 

 palities, Russia, Servia, Switzerland, and Turkey. 



The delegates included in their number some of the best veteri- 

 narians of their respective countries, as also various officers specially 

 charged with the enforcement of sanitary regulations. The ques- 

 tions before tlie convention, which, by i^revious notification, they 

 were expected to discuss, were sixty-five, to which a few were 

 added after the sessions commenced. It is a remarkable circum- 

 stance, however, that the conclusions arrived at in regard to the regulation 

 of the cattle disease met with almost unanimous approval. This accord 

 was largely due to the fact that there is at present but little contrariety 

 of opinion as to the exotic nature of the disease (at least in regard to 

 Western and Central Europe) and as to its mode of propagation. It was 

 "well established in the convention that, outside of Russia, it never de- 

 velops spontaneously upon any race of cattle, not even that of the 

 steppes; and consequently that, whenever it shows- itself outside of its 

 native home, it may be considered as imported. 



It is also well established that even after it has continued for a longer 

 or shorter time in any given country, it is only transmitted by contagion, 

 and that it always becomes extinct when the conditions favorable to its 

 propagation cease to exist. The idea, therefore, that the cattle- plagne 

 is an epidemic may as well be at once dismissed from every mind. If, 

 however, it is certain that this disease never develops itself spontane- 

 ously, beyond the frontiers of Russia, the question still arises as to which 

 of the lirovinces of that country it properly belongs. This question also 



