A RACE OF FLOWER LESS PLANTS. 



355 



One stage of a fungus, in some cases grows on a wild 

 plant, another stage on a valuable crop ; the cedar fun- 

 gus infects the apple trees 

 with rust and the barberry 

 fungus carries rust to the 

 wheat and oats. There are 

 immense numbers of fungi of 

 other classes which are be- 

 lieved to have different stages 

 of growth, perhaps in most 

 cases on the same host, but 

 their histories are unknown. 

 In almost no other field of 

 botany would successful re- 

 search yield richer results 

 than in this. 



of the vital importance of the whole subject, however, 

 to our agriculture, and of the necessity for intelligent 



Fig. 6. Cedar Apple. 



To sum up, we may enu- 

 merate seven ways in which 

 fungi injure their host plants : 

 by (i) depriving them of nourishment; (z) impairing 

 the power to assimilate food supplies, cutting off light 

 or weakening the vitality ; (3) abnormally accelerating 

 or retarding growth, producing distortions ; (4) affect- 

 ing not only green parts, but also roots, stems, inflor- 

 escence, flowers and fruits ; (5) causing leaves and fruit 

 to prematurely ripen (?) and fall ; (6) producing decay 

 in matured fruits and vegetables, both before and after 

 gathering ; (7) infecting valuable plants, by means of 

 spores grown on less valuable plants. Several of these 

 causes are often active at the same time in a diseased 

 plant, and it is difficult to say in many cases to which 

 cause the greater injury is due. There can be no doubt 



Corn Smut. 



action looking toward the prevention of fungoid rav- 

 ages in our cereal crops. 



Haj vard Universily . A. B. Seymour. 



THE RURAL NEW-YORKER'S ANSWER TO JOSEPH HARRIS. 



Mr. Joseph Harris's article on " Fertilizers for the 

 Garden" in the May number of this journal is no 

 doubt as sound as a dollar in the general principles 

 which it advocates ; but the instances which he cites 

 in proof of his conclusions are possibly open to 

 criticism. 



For a year or so past certain writers have advocated 

 a more generous use of nitrate of soda, in a way to lead 

 those who have given little thought to chemical fertilizer 

 questions to assume that it is in itself a fertilizer which 

 will insure a profitable increase of crop regardless of 

 the needs of the soil. The Rural New- Yorker has there- 

 fore repeatedly cautioned its readers not to use nitrate 

 of soda (or nitrogen in any soluble form ) unless it is known 

 that the land is already proportionately supplied with 

 available phosphoric acid and potash. Nitrogen is 

 neither more nor less valuble to the gardener or farmer 

 than is either of the others. It is by far more costly, 

 and, while the phosphates and potash remain in the soil 

 for subsequent crops, nitrate of soda leaves us even be- 

 fore the current crop is harvested. We do not need to 

 tell our distinguished critic this. He knows it, and has 



taught it in his writings for many years. And yet we 

 place Mr. Harris among those who, while cracking up 

 nitrate of soda, has not, in every case or in most cases, 

 emphasized sufficiently the insuperable importance of a 

 corresponding supply of minerals. 



Mr. Harris assumes that the chemical fertilizers of 

 to-day contain too small a quantity of nitrogen ; that 

 the minerals (potash and phosphate) are the strong links, 

 and that a deficiency of nitrogen is the weak link of the 

 chain by which the crop, in due proportion, will be di- 

 minished. This is true without a doubt in a majority of 

 cases, and it is well that it is true, for if the farmer is 

 to lose a part of the money he pays for fertilizers, he 

 would better invest it in food constituents of a lower cost 

 which will remain in his soil, than in nitrogen at a higher 

 cost, which takes its leave after a single season of ser- 

 vice. If a farmer from experimentation is fairly confi- 

 dent that his land is especially short in nitrogen, let him 

 buy fertilizers with a high ratio of nitrogen ; but if he 

 knows nothing about it, the very best thing he can do is 

 to buy high-grade complete fertilizers and use them 

 until by experiment he finds that more nitrogen will 

 profitably augment his crops. Then he may wisely add 



