various statements of S. 

 Ohio; 138, by Mr. W. 



S. Cooke, of Chillicothe, 

 M. Mills, of Hamilton, 



Canada West, and last by Mr. P. J. Berckmans, of 

 Angusta, Georgia; these three communications 

 from different parts of the country, if read with 

 care, will convince the inquiring mind that it is of 

 all importance that a closer observation than what 

 has been should be resorted to. As to Mr. Berck- 

 man's theory of the degenerating of varieties by 

 false propagation, &c., this will not stand good. 



There is talent enough in the country to find out 

 a remedy for this scourge if once set in a right 

 direction. I do not care if the second Franklin be 

 found in your city or elsewhere. The branches- 1 

 furnished you the last time, were taken off a Bartlett, 

 one was from a leading branch of the north side of 

 the tree, showing the free growth where it was not 

 effected, the other from the south from a leading 

 branch, showing the stunted growth and injured 

 bark, with four strips of bark taken from said 

 branch three and four feet below, from north and 

 south side of the branch, showing the black on the 

 south side ; the other branches were from a Winter 

 Nelis. I hope these branches will convince you of 

 the false ground taken as to fungus without the aid 

 of your specks, or that much abused instrument, 

 the microscope, which has been made to tell such 

 monstrous falsehoods of late by that genius, imagi- 

 nation. 



Mr. Cooke says, "may I not ask, has not the age 

 arrived when the cause of blight should be certainly 

 known ;" he then goes on to give his own observa- 

 tions and experience, hoping that it might excite 

 criticism if nothing more ; he then asks, " what is 

 the leading theories as to its cause." His first is 

 Frozen Sap, by A. J. Downing, which he styles 

 excellent authority; then Mr. Field has come to 

 the like conclusion, then J. J. Thomas, changes of 

 temperature, &c. The last and best of his reference 

 is by Professor J. H. Salisbury, of Cleveland, Ohio, 

 (let me beg of the readers of the Monthly to notice 

 particularly what the Professor's experience has 

 concluded on). Mr. Cooke then states that having 

 stated the various theories, he will give his own 

 experience in which fogs, vapors, and miasma forms 

 a large part, but leaves in the mind of the reader 

 that he only wants to be put on the right track. 



Mr. Mills coincides with Mr. Cooke ; he thus 

 brings forward the Parasites and compares fungi to 

 the midge in a grain of wheat. Is not this a com- 

 parison : one is a living animal, being endowed with 

 motion and life, the other what, (here is the secret). 

 In your remarks, Mr. Editor, you state, is it not 

 probable that they take root upon a living subject. 



as the Mistletoe on a pefsimmon tree. I will answer 

 as to the Mistletoe : it bears a berry the size and 

 color of the White Currant ; the centre is a hard 

 gummy substance, with a thick covering of vicid 

 matter. In 1864, I grafted a row of the Northern 

 G-reening and Ribstone Pippin apple trees, by 

 making an incision and rubbing the berry in the 

 bark on the under side of the limb, and in the 

 spring of 1866, had the pleasure of seeing every 

 seed had taken root ; the bark must be opened so 

 as to prevent water lodging in the wound. 



As to the conclusions Mr. Berckmans has arrived 

 at, ought he to be considered as authorityin every- 

 thing relating to the pear ; his whole statement is 

 foreign to the subject of blight, excepting the conclu- 

 sions he has arrived at, wherein he states :-" I con- 

 fess, although my observation has been, never having 

 observed any before the appearance of blight, but 

 often afterwards." 



This fungoid theory which has taken such hold 

 on the minds of many of the ablest investigators in 

 the country, arises from an incorrect knowledge of 

 the origin of the tribe of fungi. The lichen and 

 fungi tribe forms a large part of the creation on this 

 habitable globe, and appears to be little understood. 

 The lichen can be found on living objects, but fungi 

 never ; for that reason it cannot be the cause of 

 blight. I have never read of any author who has 

 asserted what I now state : that every living plant, 

 when in a state of decay, and placed in a proper 

 location will produce a fungus in form according to 

 its nature. Fungi being the lowest order of creation, 

 being spontaneous, arising from whatever the con- 

 stituents of the vegetables are composed of, being 

 in a state of decay ; this coming in contact with the 

 atmosphere forms the different shapes that we see, 

 but more numerous when the power of the micro- 

 scope is made use of 



I stated m my first communication to you of a 

 line reaching across the Atlantic. [ have often 

 wondered if college teaching makes wise men or the 

 reverse, for on carefully perusing the various pro- 

 ductions on this blight, the more scholastic, the 

 farther from what they would illustrate. 



KBYES' EARLY TOESATO. 



BY X., BOSTON, MASS. 



This variety seems to be distinct, and to have 

 some good points. But how can Messrs. Hovey & 

 Co. meet their assertion, that it is 30 days earlier 

 than any other kind. The facts being so opposite, 

 it is not too strong language to say that the state- 

 ment is false. The Keyes, so far from being 30 

 days earlier, is actually not so early as the ordinary 



