SECRETARY'S REPORT. 135 



strong sympathy with that enthusiastic old English writer, who 

 declares " the behavior of sheep as fascinating under any 

 circumstances." 



James S. Grennell, 

 s. h. bushnell, 

 Cyrus Knox, 



Committee. 



Another subject of apparently increasing importance, demand- 

 ing tlic most minute and careful investigation, is that embracing 

 the diseases of the plants of the farm and the garden. 



Tlie committee appointed to conduct this investigation, pre- 

 sented the following 



REPORT 



ON THE DISEASES OF VEGETATION. 



The Committee upon the Diseases of Vegetation would 

 respectfully report that we have attended to the subject confided 

 to us, and although laboring against the great difficulty, pre- 

 sented by the fact, that our field of observation is new, and fur- 

 nishes no works of reference which can give much aid in our 

 researches, we yet feel that something is being accomplished 

 which will lead to valuable results as the investigation of the 

 laws and causes of vegetable disease progresses. We believe, 

 indeed, that the report upon the " potato disease," published in 

 the Transactions of the Board, has so far satisfied the public 

 mind as to have become the chief cause of the cessation of the 

 conflicting and utterly unscientific newspaper articles, which 

 previously to that report were published so numerously by the 

 whole American press. 



In reference to that disease, which has unfortunately been 

 very prevalent in many places during the past season, we 

 would say that we have examined it extensively, and find no 

 reason, iu any way to modify or contradict any of the statements 

 of the committee who made the report alluded to. That differ- 

 ent varieties of the potato show very different powers of resist- 

 ing the disease, every farmer must have noticed, and it has been 

 clearly manifested during the past year, that those kinds which 

 most readily take on the disease are those which make the most 



