134 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



some flower of sulphur in a potful of water, and 

 syringed the whole of the vines with it ; this left the 

 flower of sulphur adhering to the leaves when they dried. 

 At the same time I coated the pipes with sulphur, and 

 aired freely. This resulted in completely arresting the 

 mildew; and it disappeared without anyinjury to the fruit, 

 and not a speck of it has appeared on the vines since. 

 There is no douht about sulphur being a specific for mil- 

 dew. A good syringing or two brings off all the sulphur 

 when the malady is fairly subdued. A damp, cold, 

 stagnant atmosphere should therefore be avoided, other- 

 wise mildew is more likely, if it be a wet sunless season, 

 to prove troublesome. 



Rust. — I do not know whether this should come un- 

 der the category of diseases, as it cannot be said that it 

 attacks the vine as a disease is understood to attack. 

 There are many causes assigned for this disfiguration, of 

 the berries, such as handling them with greasy hands, 

 toiiching them with the hair of the head while thinning 

 them, cold currents of air when the vines are young, and 

 overmuch moisture in the air. I have no recollection 

 of being conscious that rust was produced by any of 

 these causes, though I think too much moisture in the 

 atmosphere as likely to do so as any of them, seeing that 

 it has an effect on the leaves somewhat allied to rust on 

 the berries. The only case of rust worth the name 

 that ever took place in my own experience, was in 

 a very narrow vinery, where, to keep up the heat, 

 hard firing had to be resorted to. Eed-spider under these 

 circumstances made its appearance, and I had the pipes 

 covered with sulphur to check the spider. The grapes 

 were then almost ready to thin: in two or three 

 days after the sulphuring process, the bunches all 



