.THE GENESEE FARMER. 



139 



a dark foul liquid ; otlierwise it cries away and 

 shrivels together, as hai:ipens in the diseased pota- 

 toes in a dry cellar. 



" Ou the section of the inocculated half, patches 

 of mold appear as the discoloration commences. 

 These estend rapidly, and wlien magnified are 

 seen to be the fruit-bearing branches of the fungus. 

 They break out also through the skin after the 

 parts underlying have become brown by the rav- 

 ages of tlie mycelium. 



" With the other half of the potato, matters have 

 gone on very differently; A discoloration is in- 

 deed noticeable at first; but it is slight, and is due 

 to the formation of a new skin. In a short time 

 the wound heals over, and thenceforth no further 

 change liappens, though months elapse, except such 

 as M'ould occur with sound uncut potatoes under 

 the fianie circumstances. 



" The same result follows when a potato is sown 

 with spores and buried in moist earth. It is not 

 needful that the spores be applied to a cut surface. 

 The fungus when it begins to grow, will penetrate 

 the potato skin without difliculty. About a week 

 is required for the disease to become evident. 



"These facts, which SpEERsonNEioER and De 

 Baut have repeatedly verified, and which any one 

 may observe without difficulty, illustrate the man- 

 ner in whicJi the rot in the tuber is a consequence 

 of the blight of the leaf. The spores which fall 

 from the mature fungus that is on the leaves, are 

 carried by rains down into tlie ground, and reacli 

 the tubers, provided the latter are not too deep 

 lying, and tlius infect them. If the soil of a field 

 that is brown from blight be examined micro- 

 scopically, there is no difficulty in finding spores 

 among tlie particles of earth. 



"A simple experiment furnishes proof that this 

 is the actual process. De Bary buried potatoes in 

 sand from one-half to three inches deep, laid 

 blighted potato tops on the surface of the sand, 

 and s[)rinkled the whole mod'erately with water; 

 in ail cases the potatoes tljus treated became dis- 

 eased within eleven days. It is hardly necessary 

 to state that to make these experiments conclusive, 

 other potatoes were treated similarly in all respects 

 save that they were not treated with fungus spores^ 

 and that ihey invariably remained healthy. 



'• De Bary describes the precautions which are 

 needful to be observed in order to find the Pero- 

 nospora in every 2JOtato that is infected with the 

 rot. The difiiculties in the microscopic examina- 

 tion of the diseased potato have prevented many 

 skilled observers from tracing the disease to its 

 true cause ; but with proper care it is easy to 

 demonstrate beyond all question that where this 

 fungus is, there is potato disease^ and where the 

 disease is, there is this fungus.'''' 



That this is " the true cause of the potato dis- 

 ease" we have no doubt. It appears that the 

 rapidity with which the fungus propagates from 

 the mycelium contained in the seed potato is at 

 first quite slow, and this explains why the disease 

 does not manifest itself until late in the season; 

 but the following experiments of De Bary show 

 how favorable warm, moist weather is to the spread 

 of the disease : 



" In February three vigorous potato stocks grown 

 in pots were placed in the immediate vicinity of 

 some artificially infected shoots, on which Peron- 

 ospora existed in a state of fructification. The 

 plants were now frequently watered, the foliage 

 being copiously besprinkled. In a short time the 

 fungus established itself on the foliage of the pre- 

 viously healthy plants. They assumed precisely the 

 appearance of field plants attacked by the disease 

 in August. Leaf after leaf was affected, and in a 

 few weeks the plants above ground were entirely 

 destroyed, while nearly one hundred shoots of the 

 same kind of potato jdanted at the same time and 

 placed under similar circumstances, save that they 

 were shielded from contact with the fungus, kept 

 perfectly healthy, and remained so for months 

 afterward." 



Onions. — According to the London Gardeners' 

 Magazine^ charred rubbish and sand are capital 

 materials for surfacing onion beds, as they keep the 

 bulbs dry and warm while their roots are reveling 

 in the rich soil below. Moisture at the base of 

 the bulb for any length of time is most injurious 

 to the onion ; on the other hand, a dry heat at the 

 surface is very beneficial, and it is the sun-heat 

 alone which renders the Spanish onions so superior 

 to the English in flavor and beauty of the bulbs. 

 The hotter the season or the climate, the sweeter 

 is the flavor of the onions ; and the colder the sea- 

 son or the climate, the more pungent. Onions 

 grown in the north of Europe are many degrees 

 more fiery than those grown in the south. The 

 hoe should never be used among onions. It does 

 a deal of mischief, and if an onion is once loosened 

 in the soil, it never makes much growth afterward. 

 So, too, the bulbs should never be earthed up; 

 they should stand wholly above ground, and have 

 good depth of soil to root in. Sea-sand, salt and 

 soot are good top-dressings for an onion bed, to be 

 put on at least a week before sowing. The same 

 writer recommends gas lime and deep trenching as 

 the best preventives of the onion maggot. 



Lady Pigot's Shorthoens. — One of the most 

 enterprising breeders of Shorthorns in England la 

 Lady Pigot. The editor of the Marh Lane Ex- 

 press, in alluding to her " Victorias," did not get 

 the matter exactly straight, and her Ladyship im- 

 mediately wrote him the following note: 



" Sir : In your last week's paper you confounded 

 " Victoria " and " Victoria 35th." The former, for 

 which I gave Mr. Barnes, of Ireland, 500 guineas, 

 died of influenza, sis days after calving ber fourth 

 calf, when barely seven years old, and was never 

 shown in Iier life. The prize heifer "■ Victoria 

 35th," about which you uttered such gloomy 

 prophecies during lier show career of 1862, pro- 

 duced a very handsome heifer calf in November, 

 and is milking capitally.— Faithfully yours, Emilt 

 Pigot, Branches Park'"' 



