THE GENESEE FARMER. 



311 



the weather continued mild late in the fall and 

 winter, and lo and behold! the whole field showed 

 an unmistakable tendency to run up to seed, and 

 he was obliged to turn his sheep into the field, and 

 also to set men to work with scythes to cut otf the 

 starting tops ! Under such circumstances of course 

 the bulbs were pithy and poor, and the loss was 

 very great. 



'"But what,' you ask, 'has all this to do with 

 cauliflowers?' I will tell you: The head of a 

 cauliflower is, like the bulb of a turnip, not the 

 natural growth of the plant. It is the result of 

 cultivation. The plant naturally would run up to 

 seed without forming a head. "We have, by care- 

 ful breeding, obtained this desirable quality, but it 

 is not of so permanent a character that we can 

 dispense with care in raising the seed. 



" To raise good cauliflower seed, we must sow 

 the seed in September or October, and preserve 

 the plants during the winter and let them head 

 next spring. Some of the plants will form nice 

 compaet heads, while others will have a tendency 

 to run up to seed. These latter must be pulled 

 out, and only the good heads be allowed to go to 

 eeed. But unfortunately the seed-growers do 

 not seem to understand this. Judging from the 

 results, it would seem that they let all the plants 

 go to seed whether they have good heads or poor 

 ones. In fact, the seed is sometimes so poor that 

 I am inclined to think they must cut all the good 

 heads to eat and leave only the poor ones for seed! 



M The same remarks w T ill apply to cabbage ; we 

 6hould raise seed only from the best heads. 



"Will you step into the cold grapery. The 

 grapes are now ripe, and are worth looking at ; or 

 at all events they are not bad to take. Rose 

 Chasselas has been ripe for some time. 



" A cold grapery is not an expensive affair, and 

 a little care and study would soon enable any one 

 to manage it. 



44 The vines are planted three feet apart, and are 

 trained on the double-spur system. Hochstkin 

 has made a cut of a section of one for the Genesee 

 Farmer. 



44 1 no longer fear mildew on the grape, either in 

 the house or in the open grounds. Sulphur is a 

 sure cure. I wish we had as certain a remedy for 

 mildew on all other fruits. 



44 If we do not bestir ourselves, and that speedily, 

 our orchards and gardens will soon be ruined by 

 fungus in one or other of its various forms. Not 

 a blighted branch, or a blighted leaf, or a blighted 

 fruit should be allowed to remain in the garden. 



Burn it at once. These spots on the apple are caused 

 by a fungus ; so are these on the pear. They do 

 little damage at first, but nothing spreads so rapidly 

 as fungus, and it takes but little time to become an 

 alarming enemy. • 



44 Some of my friends have been inclined to laugh 

 at the opinion that the blight of the pear is caused 

 by a fungus taken up by the roots. They think it 

 could not spread so rapidly as to kill a good sized 

 tree in a day. A little acquaintance with the 

 habits of the fungi would show that the thing is 

 not impossible ; and besides, it is probable that the 

 fungus has been growing in the tree for some time 

 before it makes its appearance. 



SECTION OF VINE TRAINED ON THE DOUBLE SPUR SYSTEM. 



44 But as a general rule trees do not blight all at 

 once. A branch is attacked, the leaves die and 

 the fruit shrivels. You cut it off. Perhaps the 

 next day another branch dies, and you remove that 

 also. The rest of the tree w r ill remain healthy, or 

 it will die, as it may chance. To me, all the effects 

 point to a fungus taken into the circulation through 

 the roots as the cause. Smut in wheat is known to 

 be caused in this way. It can be produced at will 

 by simply rubbing the wheat with the spores of 

 the fungus; and it can be prevented by killing the 

 spores on the wheat at the time it is sown. 



44 This afternoon I dug round a blighted pear 

 tree, and I found what convinces me still more that 

 the blight is caused by a fungus taken up by the 



