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MILDEW ON THE VINE. 



Mildew, when it attacks the vine, is a most insidious 

 and destructive disease. Its ravages in the vineyards 

 of the Continent have been of the most serious char- 

 acter, involving the ruin of thousands ; and in our own 

 country, some twelve or fourteen years ago, hundreds of 

 vineries had their crops destroyed by it. In Middlesex, 

 where I then lived, this disease was almost universal, 

 but I never had it except on one vine, and this one 

 grew in the cold end of a fighouse, where it was shaded 

 a good deal by trees. This house had but little heat 

 applied to it by artificial means, and was the only one 

 of seven houses in which we had vines, where their 

 treatment and the situation of the house were such as 

 to favour, according to my views, the development of 

 the spores of the vine mildew. The house was in a 

 damp, shady situation. The vines were never forced, 

 but allowed to come on with the heat of the sun ; and 

 the season when the disease made its appearance was 

 cold and wet. As soon as I observed it, I sprinkled 

 sulphur on the flue, and began firing it, keeping a cur- 

 rent of air as dry as possible in the house. I watched 

 the stems and thread-like links of the parasite on 

 the leaves and berries with a glass, and I found that 

 the current of dry air and fumes of the sulphur caused 

 them to shrivel up and die. The disease made no fur- 

 ther progress, and I believe it will never attack vines 

 that are grown in a proper climate. As to heat, moist- 

 ure, and ventilation, many treat their vines so as to 

 predispose them to it, or rather they bring about such 



