96 Fungi, Insects, SfC. — how to prevent their attacks on plants. Vol. X, 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Fungi, Insects, «&c.,— how to prevent 

 their attacks on plants. 



Mr. Editor, — The fact that the disease 

 which has injured the potatoe crop so se- 

 verely for several years past, has been at- 

 tributed to the attacks of the fungi, by some 

 highly scientific gentleoien, induces me to 

 give you a few remarks on the cause of the 

 fungi. 



Close observation will show that all plants 

 of the fungi tribe grow where there is a de- 

 ficiency of alkalies. We never see mush- 

 rooms, toadstools, or anything of the kind 

 grow on or near a heap of ashes, or lime. 

 But we almost invariably see them growing 

 on or near a pile of stable dung, or any thing 

 yielding a large proportion of carbonic acid. 

 The cause of this is easily demonstrated by 

 chemistry. A chemical analysis of plants 

 of the fungi tribe, will show that they con- 

 tain an extremely small proportion of alkali, 

 far smaller than any other class of vegeta- 

 bles. This fact is of the highest importance 

 to farmers; by its aid they can always tell 

 when their soils need alkaline substances to 

 make them more productive, without going 

 to the trouble and expense of a chemical 

 analysis of the soil for that purpose. Upon 

 whatever spot of ground tlie fungi make 

 their appearance, there is a want of alkali, 

 and no time should be lost in supplying it, if 

 we would raise profitable crops; for such 

 crops as wheat, corn, oats, hay, potatoes, &c., 

 will not grow well there even if they are 

 supplied with the very best stable manure. 

 They need ashes, lime, &c., in such places, 

 and they cannot do without them. 



The fungi being composed principally of 

 carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, feed upon 

 carbonic acid and water chiefly, and conse- 

 quently if lime or potash be added to the 

 soil where they grow, and the carbonic acid 

 be thereby changed into a salt, the fungi 

 have nothing to feed upon, and therefore 

 die, for they cannot feed upon a salt. When 

 the potatoe crop has been furnished with 

 sufficient alkali, particularly potash, and the 

 carbonic acid in it is in the form of a car- 

 bonate, the fungi have nothing to feed on, 

 and do not attack the potatoe. On the other 

 hand, when there is not sufficient alkali 

 given to the potatoe crop to cause the car- 

 bonic acid to form a salt by union with such 

 alkali, then the carbonic acid in the potatoe 

 is in its own form of carbonic acid, and as 

 such the sickly root offers the proper food to 

 the fungi, and it avails itself of it; unfortu- 

 nately, for doing so, it brings down upon 



itself the charge of being the cause of the 

 potatoe disease.* 



The same is the case with other plants. 

 If they lack alkali to form a salt in connec- 

 tion with the carbonic acid they receive, the 

 superabundant carbonic acid will give nutri- 

 tion to the seeds of fungi, and they wdl 

 sprout and grow. We see this effect pro- 

 duced in wheat in the case of mildew, rust, 

 or blight, and also in smut in the same plant, 

 the ergot in rye, the " devil's snufi-box" in 

 corn, tiie mildew in oats, buckwheat, and 

 the grasses, and the mossy growth on the 

 bark of fruit and other trees. This is de- 

 monstrated by the fact, that if we apply 

 strong alkalies in sufficient quantities to any 

 of those plants before they are attacked by 

 the fungi, they icill not be attacked ; and if 

 we supply them after they are attacked, they 

 will soon be freed from them. It is to this 

 purpose that our most successful farmers and 

 fruit raisers apply salt and lime to protect 

 wheat from rust, mildew, or blight, and 

 smut — and put ashes and lime upon corn to 

 protect it from the "snuff-box" — and sow 

 ashes on potatoes to save them from the rot 

 — and wash fruit trees with whale oil, soap 

 or other alkaline substances, to restore them 

 to health. These alkaline substances, too, 

 by uniting with the carbonic acid, prevent 

 the commencement of decay. This com- 

 mencement, in all carboniferous substances, 

 is called in chemistry, the "saccharine fer- 

 mentation," the product of which is a sweet 

 substance, which gives food to flies, bugs, 

 &c., and which flies and bugs are also 

 charged by other scientific gentlemen, with 

 being the cause of the potatoe rot, and other 

 diseases of plants. The Hessian fly, in my 

 opinion, finds nothing suited to its palate in 

 a healthy stalk of wheat, or one that has 

 enough alkali, and therefore does not attack 

 it; but in a sickly plant, or one with a defi- 

 ciency of alkali, she finds the sweet sub- 

 stance upon which she feeds, and there lays 

 her eggs; which eggs, in the course of time, 

 hatch and produce worms, and if the plant 

 is in such a condition as to furnish food for 

 these worms, they will still remain there ; 

 but a healthy plant will not furnish that 

 food — the same in regard to the wheat- 



* Some of the practical chemists of your city, with 

 their balances, tests, &c., might do the agricultural 

 community a great service in connection with this 

 matter, by analyzing sound potatoes, and giving their 

 constituents, and then analyzing the rotting potatoes, 

 and giving their constituents also. The public might 

 then compare them, and see what was wanted, and 

 supply it : I would do so myself, had I the requisite 

 materials. 



