6 



in this debilitated state by insects, and fungoid diseases, and 

 man wonders what is to be done to avert the calamity. 



The unfortunate planter seems doomed to have his 

 estates visited by all sorts of pests which can only be grap- 

 pled with by the expenditure of fresh capital. Every year 

 shows him he is becoming more and more dependent on 

 science. A man may cultivate for a certain period, and have 

 a fair amount of success, but after a time the cultivation re- 

 solves itself into a science to master which research, expe- 

 rience, and chemistry, must go hand in hand with capital 

 and energy. 



The difference between the Leaf Disease and the Rot 

 is that the former is a fungoid disease originating in or at 

 least affecting the cellular tissue, and causing a fungoid ef- 

 f orescence or emption on the leaf ; whereas the Rot is a fun- 

 goid deposit from without assisted by the impaired condi- 

 tion of the system of the plant. Leaf disease under the 

 miscroscope is found to consist of innumerable minute fungi 

 which are forced out of the pores of the leaf, whereas the 

 tenacious fungoid web which in " Rot" completely creeps 

 over the lower suf ace of the leaf, is evideiitl y a mildew de- 

 posit, caused by atmospheric action, coupled with a passive 

 submission of the leaf to the insidious attack, owing to the 

 vital energy of the plant being impaired. In the Monsoon 

 all inanimate substances are attacked by mildew, and is it dif- 

 ficult to realize the probability that a plant, with impaired 

 vital energy, and struggling for food in a cold retentive 

 soil, containing noxious gases stagnant water and a mass 

 of matter highly suitable for growing mushrooms and fungi 

 and perhaps in a mouldy and mildew state, should also be- 

 liable to similar attacks ? Now allowing what has been 

 said, (making every allowance for ignorance and faulty ar- 

 gument) to have a certain amount of truth in it, we ar- 



