504 Transactions of the American Institute. 



their value. They are too often influenced by the plea of cheapness, 

 and thus they save at the spigot and waste at the bung. 



Mr. P. T. Quinn — If trees are bought of nurserymen of standing, 

 they can be held responsible ; but there are so many ways of deceiving 

 that it is very hard to determine whether an agent is trustworthy or 

 otherwise. I know perfectly well that if I wanted trees, a dozen or a 

 thousand, I would send my order to a nurseryman I believed to be 

 reliable, and who could be made to pay the penalty of deception. 



Mr. Simeon Baldwin — I bought some trees from a man representing 

 himself to be the agent of a respectable firm, and the trees came to 

 me with their names on them, and I sent them a check in payment. 



Mr. E. Williams — If the only customers the nurserymen had were 

 the farmers who bought direct from them, they would fare but poorly. 

 More than two-thirds of their trees are sold to dealers and retailed 

 by them. 



Smut. 



Dr. "Wolff asked the savans to say whether smut in wheat is an 

 effect or a cause, and what is its cure. 



Mr. F. D. Curtis — Smut is a fungus, the seeds of which are trans- 

 mitted from crop to crop with the grain, the straw, in the atmosphere. 

 A favorable season, climatic influences, develop their spores or seed, 

 and we have more or less smut. If the seed is thoroughly washed in 

 brine or strong lime water, much of it can be destroyed and the amount 

 of smut reduced. It is not a " distemper," but a vegetable growth. 



Top-dkessing. 



A correspondent made inquiry as to guano and phosphate of lime, 

 comparative cost and value, as top-dressing for grass land. 



Mr. Henry Stewart — For this purpose I would rather use guano 

 and bone dust mixed than super-phosphate of lime alone. Super- 

 phospate and guano are both quickly stimulating manures, but not 

 permanent, but bone dust is able to effect a permanent improvement 

 for many years. I would, therefore, apply to grass lands 150 pounds 

 of guano, if of pure Peruvian, and 200 pounds of bone dust, early in 

 the spring. Three hundred pounds of super-phosphate would be a 

 fair quantity. The price of pure Peruvian guano is ninety dollars 

 per ton, bone dust thirty-five to forty dollars, super-phosphate forty- 

 five to sixty dollars per ton, in New York. In any of the agricul- 

 tural papers will be found advertisements of the dealers. 



