150 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



was at one time thought as essential as the 

 marrow in the bone. It arises from the necli 

 of the stem of exogenous plants, and terminat- 

 ing at the leaf bud — with all of which, whether 

 they are lateral or terminal, it is in direct 

 communication, constituting a reservoir of 

 nutritious matter for the j'oung leaves when 

 first developing. Light, heat and air, com- 

 bined with the gases, perform their respective 

 offices ; so the plant feeds, perspires or exhales 

 and breathes, as it were, tlirough its lungs, 

 the leaves. Capillary attraction in the mi- 

 nute tubes pumps up the juices, which circu- 

 late and become elaborated, and the various 

 functions are performed to build up the tree, 

 put forth its leaves and blossoms, and yield 

 its luscious fruit. 



This is healthy action in a healthy tree. 

 Now what constitutes the " Yellows," or dis- 

 ease of the tree V I may not specially direct 

 all my remarks to the peach-trees only ; some 

 may apply more generally to other diseases 

 than the "yellows." One claiming to have 

 made peach culturea specialty, says : "Rarely 

 do we meet with a peach-tree on a southern 

 slope stricken with the'" yellows," while aged 

 healthy trees are invariably fotnid in such 

 places in perfection. I have some trees at the 

 present moment in my mind's eye, so old that 

 I can find no one to tell me their age exactly, 

 which are growing on the south side of some 

 buildings, models of health and productive- 

 ness." He then enters upon his mode of cul- 

 ture and success of the ditlerent sorts, exten- 

 sively. The article is signed Melocoton. 

 I set it forth that others may direct attention 

 to localities of the kind ; for, if true, it forms 

 a valuable consideration. In the Agricultural 



Report for 1871, the microscopist, Mr. , 



, of the department, informs us that the 



" yellows " is supposed by many fruit growers 

 to originate in spring frosts ; also, that the 

 disease is unknown in Europe. Again, he 

 says the " soil on which the ' yellows ' of the 

 peach flourish will produce healthy peach- 

 trees, if they are grown luider glass struc- 

 tm'es. " Such a structure would also protect 

 them from frost, in my opinion. He states 

 that in his experiments, " maceration of the 

 bark of the trunk and branches exhibits the 

 presence of albuminous matter, in which a 

 profusion of mycelium is found. When the 

 albuminous matter is in profusion, monads 

 and fungi readily grow, but the converse con- 

 ditions give opposite results ; hence the ab- 

 sence of fungi in the solutions of the bark of 

 the roots — the bark of the root having a very 

 limited portion of albumen. Solutions of the 

 healthy bark gave no signs of fungi." He 

 adds : " The experiments were frequently re- 

 peated, giving uniform results. The evidence 

 thus furnished in the investigation of the 

 'peach yellows' favors the view, that when the 

 mycelium is formed on the wood, the cambium 

 cell layers are deposited between the mycelium 

 and the fiber, inclosing in this way annually 

 a sheet of mycelium, vyhich continues to grow, 

 and necessarily becomes highly compressed or 

 felted." I may not he competent to judge 

 what he means by his annual sheets of myce- 

 lium and feltiny. It is a wonder that no vege- 

 table physiologist has taken serious objection 

 to his entire experiments. Let any one try 

 the experiment of any albuminoid vegetable, 

 destitute of Quinia or tannic acid, and in less 

 than six days of maceration both fungi and 

 animalcula3 will be developed. In the diseased 

 tissues albuminous matter may be more abun- 

 dantly present than in healthy bark, comljined 

 with tannic acid, which prevents the formation 

 of the proper nidus. Ferments are of an al- 

 buminous or glutinous character, and pro- 

 duce germs of Penicillum glcuieum, which is a 

 fungus also. 



But in his theory about the mildew on the 

 grape caused by "atmospheric pressure on 

 the sap in the leaves, to pass through the pores 

 to the surface, depositing albuminous juice, 

 the food of the fungi ; then a high tempera- 

 ture following, all the conditions necessary for 

 the formation of fungi are present," he adds : 

 "It has long been observed that rust, mold, 

 mildew and smut follow such a course of at- 



mospheric variation." In short, he states 

 that pale green or yellowish leaves are alwavs 

 infested by fungus, while those that are glossy 

 or dark green never are. He does not prove 

 by this that the fungus is the cause of the dis- 

 ease ; it may be simply a secondary result, in- 

 duced by the albuminous secretions on the 

 leaves. Former experimentalists accounted 

 for this diseased condition to a change of the 

 humors in the tissues : 1st. Excess of heat 

 causing the aqueous sap to be vapor- 

 ized, and depositing the thicker albuminoid 

 matters on the surface so as to clog up the 

 stc)mata, produce stagnation and form the 

 nidus for fungus development, like other de- 

 caying matter. This certainly needs no at- 

 mospheric pressure more than is exercised at 

 all times under like conditions on the healthy 

 or diseased leaves, becoming pale and spongy, 

 and the breaking pores clogged up by albu- 

 minoid matter, so as to exclude the air and 

 transform the chlorophil or green coloring 

 matter. 



Tills result is produced by excessive trans- 

 piration during a heated term of dry weather ; 

 the watery portions of the sap are evaporated, 

 and the thicker albuminous portion lodged 

 upon the surface of the leaves. This takes 

 place, no matter how the atmospheric pressure 

 is, as that, like the heat, would act (all things 

 the same relatively) upon all the plants — 

 leaving the question, why are some so clogged 

 up and others not V Therefore we must look 

 for a radical cause preceding the former, 

 whether in the soil, planting, pruning or va- 

 riety of the plant, and the change induced by 

 planting, or rather transplanting, from one 

 soil to the other ; the delay or interruption 

 while so doing ; in short, any or a combina- 

 tion of these causes may att'ect the normal fiow 

 of the sap or full action of all the vessels, to 

 induce weakness, so as to be less able to resist 

 the action of heat, etc. So, some men are sun- 

 struck, and suffer or perish, while others un- 

 der the same circumstances escape. This is a 

 common sense view ; and I could produce any 

 amount of evidence that would go to establish 

 it. Depletion, whetlier by evaporation, 

 aphids or insects of any kind,, may do the 

 same, but when an excess of moisture is in 

 the plants, a degree of depletion may do no 

 harm. Nature ever seeks to establish an 

 equilibrium. As regards frost, I will say, ob- 

 servation has provided that a few warm days 

 in early spring may start the buds, and subse- 

 quent frost retard them, and this interruption 

 may leave its effects to follow by other concur- 

 rent circumstances, either surmounted to 

 avoid or increased into pernicious results. I 

 will aive a case reported in my own words, 

 where in early spring the frost in the ground 

 yet locks up the spongioles or rootlets so as to 

 be dormant. A few bright sun-shiny days may 

 start the sap above ground, the pith or store- 

 rooms to the buds, wake up to motion, start- 

 ing the Isaves. This starting will draw upon 

 all the cells to supply the action, while the 

 root or base of supplies is under an embargo. 

 The result is, that the tree may put forth vig- 

 orous leaves and appear to flourish, but alas ! 

 all the resources exhausted before the evil can 

 be prevented, the slugglish supply from the 

 root has to struggle through the exhausted 

 cells and tubes, slirunken up, requiring for 

 their own restoration the full supply, and too 

 tardy to reach the advance skirmishing force, 

 who, fiiint and starving, succumb, and all the 

 leaves die, as by a stroke of lightninsr — appar- 

 ently as suddenly. This I have myself wit- 

 nessed. There is nothing strange about it ; 

 the functions stop, action stops ; so when the 

 heart no longer beats, and circulation stands 

 still, the human machine stops, and decay and 

 dis.solution mast inevitably follow. 



Having already written more than I intend- 

 ed, I will only add that disease and the with- 

 ering of the leaves in plants is not only caused 

 by insects or by fungi, but various complica- 

 tions can take place to Vjring about like results 

 in plants or animals. This subject is exten- 

 sive and by no means exhausted. Of course 

 various plants, localities and treatments will 

 vary in result ; and sometimes we meet with 



very conflicting statements as resulting from ' 

 experience, in which this difference is not ' 

 taken into consideration. Hence close exami- j 

 nation as to the various conditions that invest 

 each case must be examined. The parasitic 

 fungus on the living plant, the fungus result- ■ 

 ing from or found on decaying plants, the de- 

 pletion and boring of insects, the effects of 

 heat, cold, drought or excessive moisture, are 

 all questions that should be had in view, and \ 

 necessarily the data given, before a safe ver- ' 

 diet can be given on any special case. — J. S. 



For The Lancaster Farmer, , 

 ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZERS. 



Under our modern system of farming, there 

 are on an average probably more of the fertil- 

 izing elements of the soil removed than are re- 

 placed by manures made on the farm in rais- 

 ing stock and from animals kept to work. 

 Some of these elements, such as nitrogen and 

 ammonia, are supplied in small quantities by 

 the air and rain water. So if all the grain, 

 hay and other produce were consumed on the 

 farm, and the manure resulting therefrom ap- 

 plied to it again, its fertility would constantly 

 increase. Some persons recommend this course, 

 but as other things besides butter, cheese and 

 meat are needed by people of cities and those 

 who work at trades, a great deal of the other 

 products must be sold off by some of the farm- 

 ers. 



Through the aid of science it has become 

 known how much or what kind of materials 

 are taken from the soil by any of the regular 

 farm and garden crops, and by the same aid 

 it has been discovered where to look for the 

 materials so removed, and this has given rise 

 to what are called "artificial fertilizers." 



The principal materials removed in crop- 

 ping are nitrogen, potash, soda, lime, magne- 

 sia, phosphoric acid, and sulphuric acid, but 

 the different crops remove them in very difter- 

 ent quantities. Thus buckwheat straw, weight 

 for weight, removes about four times as much 

 nitrogen, potash and soda from the soil as 

 wheat straw ; tobacco (leaves) remove more 

 nitrogen than any other crop and over twice 

 what the same weight of wheat would, and 

 removes nearly six times the quantity of pot- 

 ash. This shows the reason why some crops 

 are termed as " hard on the land." 



From what we have observed above, a fer- 

 tilizer should contain all the materials the 

 plant needs in growing to a full development. 

 Any fertilizer having all these is a complete 

 fertilizer and could be used year after year 

 with good effect, but unfortunately, the only 

 reliable one is barnyard manure, and of which 

 we have seldom enough. A fertilizer that 

 lacks some of these materials may perhaps 

 have others in 'abundance, and would be suit- 

 able for particular crops, or for soils out of 

 which such materials had been taken by long- 

 continued and over-cropping until it became 

 "worn out," i. e., lacked some particular ma- 

 terial which was needful for growing full crops. 

 These may be called special manures. 



In the application of the complete manures 

 there is very little art to be employed, as the 

 only trouble is that seldom enough of it is 

 available. In the special manures, if the soil 

 is already in fair order, with the materials in 

 proper proportion, it isonly necessary to know 

 what materials are needed for the crop, and 

 then apply that fertilizer which contains these 

 in abundance. On over-cropped fields it is 

 more difticult to tell what fertilizer is needed, 

 for now the wants of the crop to be raised and 

 the materials which the soil lacks have to be 

 taken into consideration. 



To apply artificial fertilizers the farmer 

 should be "conversant with the wants of the 

 crops he raises, what the materials are, the 

 amount removed, and where he can get them 

 again at the lowest rates. It must be remem- 

 bered, however, that the fertilizer that can be 

 purchased for the least money is seldom, if 

 ever, as cheap as the higher trades at twice 

 the price. But the price itself is not always 

 a sure rule, for in the American Agriculturist 

 for April is given the analysis of five difierent 



