1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



59 



" Amongst a great many fine varieties, there 

 is none, take it altogether, that I esteem so highly 

 as the Earl}/ Tillotson, which I received from 

 thee several years ago. It is of full, medial size ; 

 in jlavor scarcely to be surpassed ; and in the 

 time of ripening, it is earlier than any other 

 peach of merit that I am acquainted with. Had 

 1 only known of its excellence in time, and 

 planted it as extensively as I might have done, ii 

 would have yielded me this season, a large sum." 

 Very respectfully, David Thomas. 



Near Aurora, Cayuga Co., 1 Mo., 1848. 



Remarks. — Is it a fact that the " cut-leaved" 

 varieties are more subject to mildew than others ? 

 and if so, how can it be accounted for? 



The slower growth of the Tillotson is not en- 

 tirely owing to to its liability to mildew. The 

 past season, we had a bed of some 3,000 trees, 

 on which there w-as scarcely a trace of mildew 

 visible, but they did not attain to more than five- 

 sixth to seven-eighth the dimensions of Craw- 

 ford's Mclocoton, growing beside them in the 

 same soil. Like the Early Ann, the Nutmeg, 

 and many others, the Tillotson is, aside from dis- 

 ease or accident, of rather slow growth. And 

 this, in the first place, may have rendered it 

 more susceptible to mildew, from its weaker 

 powers of respiration and perspiration, inducing 

 a somewhat unhealthy condition and flow of the 

 sap. We know that the more vigorous rapid 

 growing sorts arc seldom or very slightly at- 

 tacked by this disease, and that all plants in 

 houses or in the open air, are less subject to it 

 while in a healthy vigorous state of growth than 

 when feeble and languishing. Such varieties, 

 should therefore, be kept in a vigorous condition 

 by good culture, and always pl-iced in an open, 

 airy exposure. 



The French cultivators of the peach generally 

 consider the mildew a constitutional malady, 

 and incurable. A multitude of palliatives are 

 suggested in their books, such as washing the 

 leaves, and various modes of pruning and train- 

 ing. We think the most effectual remedy will 

 be found in furnishing the tree with proper nour- 

 ishment at the roots, a warm dry soil, kept mel- 

 low by culture, and frequent dressings of wood 

 ashes. 



In another place will be found an article ex- 

 tracted from the London Gardener's Chronicle, 

 which may serve to give those of our readers 

 who have not given this common vegetable 

 malady much attention, some idea of what it is. 



Flowers from Mexico. — Major Williams, 

 of this city, has some flowers received in a letter 

 from Monterey, picked in the garden of Gen. 

 Arista. We noticed Convolvulus tricolor. 

 Coreopsis Drummondi, Nemophylla, Cypress 

 vine, and Achimenes, all well known florists' 

 flowers here. We would rather see these sim- 

 ple beautiful flowers, than the trophies of war. 



Diseases of Plants. — Mildew. 



Common as are the production.*! which it now comes to 

 our turn to examine, and notorious as is tlieir noxious influ- 

 ence on vegotaiioi), the liistory of their development is but 

 imperfectly known, 'i'liey consist of little globules chang- 

 ing from a more or less deep yellow to black, springing 

 from a lloccose web, and filled with sacs containing the re- 

 productive organs, and at a certain stage of growth putting 

 out from all parts of their circumference long variously 

 formed libres, which lift them up from the surface of the 

 leaves in which they grow, and imbibe their juices ; and 

 they are always preceded by delicate threads which are 

 mostly white, but occasionally grayish, con.sistinGf of little 

 bead-like joints, of which the uppermost fall oil' and, it i.t 

 believed, like so many germs, vegetate, and thus quickly 

 gain possession of the infested plant. These mealy patches 

 are called by botanists, according to their degree of devel- 

 opment, Oidiuin or Erysiphe, and are too well known tD 

 cultivators under the general name of mildew. 



Fig. 1, Enjs'qjhe guttata; 2, E. ■pmidllata: 3, E. Grami- 

 uis; 4, E. adunca; 5, E. bicornis: all after Corda. 



It has not, indeed, been positively proved that the Oidi- 

 tim is an early stage of the Erysiphe, but the one so con- 

 stantly precedes the other, that it is more than probable 

 that they are merely different stages of growth of the same 

 thing. The peach, especially, suffers from the attack ot 

 such a parasite, and is only very lately that the second or 

 more perfect form is developed. If, however, the young 

 shoots be examined late in the season they will be found 

 coated with a thin floccose web of the same nature as that 

 which succeeds to the mildew of the Rose, known to the 

 French under the name of " Blanc de Rosier." The peach 

 mildew is a well-known pest not only of forced peaches, 

 but of those grown on exposed walls, even in the most fa- 

 vorable aspect, and when once it gains possession of a spot 

 it is not often that it is extirpated. Various plana are re- 

 sorted to by gardeners to hinder the growth of this trouble- 

 some parasite, of which, perhaps, the most genera! is flow- 

 ers of brimstone, at the best a very doubtful remedy. — 

 Where it grows upon the fruit probably more is done by 

 the action of rubbing it on than by the brimstone itself, 

 which, in the shape of a crude powder, can scarcely have 

 much effect, and possibly the best remedy next to taking 

 care that the trees are flourishing from proper attention to 

 soil, and as free an admission of air as consistent with the 

 object in view of early produce, is washing the walls with 

 something which may either destroy or cover the minute 

 spores, or, as recommended by a German writer, syringing 

 the whole plant well with a strong solution of brown soap. 

 Where trees have been destroyed by mildew, it is quite 

 useless to plant another in the same position without some 

 such precautions. We have seen three generations in suc- 

 cession destroyed by mildew, in the course of a few years. 



