176 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



hop yards, but has frequently injured the gardens in England, 

 whose warm, damp atmosphere is peculiarly favorable to the 

 growth of the minute plants which the mold reveals under the 

 microscope. This disease is treated with an application of sulphur 

 thrown on to the vines by means of a machine called a sulphura- 

 tor ; the fine flour is blown by a fanning mill among the leaves of 

 the plant while covered Avith dew. Great quantities of sulphur 

 are used in England for this purpose. 



*' The blight seen in hop yards is caused in the same way as 

 that seen upon fruit trees, and sometimes upon rose bushes. 

 Wherever the skin is grazed or pierced by insects, the sap escapes 

 and hardens upon the surface. The only way to prevent this 

 blight is to destroy the louse at its first appearance, which will be 

 in July, by applications of a wash destructive to them. In Eng- 

 land, where the blight has been known for sixty years, several 

 remedies have been used with advantage. In Kent I have seen 

 crops secured from gardens at the beginning of the season covered 

 with lice, which had been exterminated by two applications of 

 the followino- wash, thrown over the vines through a hose with a 

 muzzle perforated with small holes, through a force-pump : 



"A soap suds is made about as strong as is left from an ordi- 

 nary washing. Into this is put salt and saltpeter to make it a 

 weak brine. Dissolve copperas in warm water, and add to the 

 brine in the proportion of one pound of copperas to five gallons 

 of the liquor. Where the vines are trained low upon the horizon- 

 tal plan, the expense of the apparatus, and labor of using it, as 

 well as the waste of much of the liquid, is avoided, as a common 

 large syringe answers the purpose equally well, and a man can go 

 over a yard at an expense of one or two dollars per acre. 



"Another wash, consisting of one pound coarse tobacco to one 

 gallon boiling water, is used extensively in Kent, Eng. It is 

 applied by means of a common large syringe. More boiling 

 water is added when necessary to keep the wash at a proper con- 

 sistency to be used in the syringe. This is an eflfectual remedy 

 against every insect which it reaches, and a few applications at the 

 proper season will insure a good crop where a total failure would 

 be the certain result of neglect. 



"In Canterbur}', England, the receipt most used there for the 

 blight, is one pound soft soap, called black soap, to four gallons 

 water. Many use tobacco with the soap, but those who have bad 

 most experience say the soap and water alone are efiective. 



