PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 35 



mildew, and other diseases in grapevines. I bethought 

 me again how I had offered a reward of one thousand 

 dollars for something that would destroy cabbage blight 

 without injuring the cabbage, when soon General Eug- 

 gels and Captain Warner appeared at my grounds, 

 ready, as they said, to earn the prize. Their plan was 

 not new, and if they had had as much knowledge about 

 what they were doing as the veriest tyro in chemistry 

 would have had, they would have known how absurd 

 their proposition was. However, I gave them a chance 

 to test their alleged discovery. A cabbage was selected 

 which was covered with blight, and an old kerosene can 

 was placed over it. One spoonful of sulphur was then 

 put underneath in a small saucer and ignited, the fumes 

 being allowed to fill the can. Five minutes later we ex- 

 amined the plant, and, sure enough, every insect, every 

 portion of the blight, was effectually killed, but the cab- 

 bage, too, was as dead as a door-nail. 



When that little experiment came back to my mind, 

 it occurred to me that it was an excellent illustration of 

 the effect of medicine, which, while it destroys the mi- 

 crobes, kills the patient too, the patient being usually 

 the first to succumb. It led me to again think over my 

 own garden experiences, and the conviction became 

 deeply impressed, on my mind that, if I could discover 

 anything that would kill blight, fungi, and microbes on 

 plants without injuring them, I should also be in posses- 

 sion of something that would cure me. I felt that I had 

 had large experience, that I had been a careful and close 

 observer of Nature and her operations, and was positively 

 assured of the causes, to some extent, that led to the 

 production of plant diseases. I knew^ that all the various 

 kinds of fungus, or micro-organism, which produce rot, 

 mildew, etc., appear more frequently at changes of the 

 weather, and that whenever we had rain in spring after 

 a bright sunshine, disease would make its appearance 

 on the grapevines within twenty-four hours. 



The effect thus so quickly apparent was as if some one 

 had sprinkled the leaves with some kind of poison. At 



