194 
October, 1889. 
£ 
ORCHRRD 
GARDEN 
dark livid brown . The destruction of the 
tissues may proceed inwards through the 
thickness of the pod and even involve the 
beans within. If attacked when quite 
young, as is sometimes the case, the pods 
are dwarfed and amount to nothing: if af- 
fected later they may attain full size but 
mature imperfectly and yield an inferior 
crop. In the case of “string" beans, badly 
spotted pods are unsaleable and a few that 
are diseased may materially affect the price 
of a fairly good lot. 
The cause of the bean disease in question 
is a very minute fungus similar in many re- 
spects to the parasite which produces the 
Anthracnose of the raspberry or to that 
which causes the similailv named disease 
of the grape. We get a view of this fungus 
by cutting a very thin vertical section 
through one of the spots and examining it 
under a good compound microscope. We 
thus get a view like that shown in figure 
1608. The body of the fungus, composed of 
a dense growth of mycelium, lies very near 
the surface, apparently covered only by the 
cuticle. In fruiting the fungus sends up, 
perpendicular to the surface, short stalks 
upon whose summits the oblong, one celled, 
b && & 
Fig. 1608 
and nearly transparent spores are borne. 
These spores readily germinate in water 
and during damp wet weather are produc- 
ed in great abundance and serve to rapidly 
propagate the disease. Other spore forms 
are unknown and we are also ignorant as to 
how the fungus passes through from one 
season to the next. 
In all the specimens which we have ex- 
amined microscopically, we have constant- 
ly found intermingled with the short spore 
bearing stalks, and projecting much beyond 
them, a few large, dark brown stalks or 
hyphen the presence of which separates our 
fungus from the genus Glceosporium, under 
which it has heretofore been classed, and 
places it in the genus Collelotrichum, the 
name here adopted. 
As to the treatment of beans in order to 
prevent this Anthracnose we can only say, 
in the absence of all attempts or experi- 
ments made with this object in view, keep 
the plants as dry as possible by keeping 
them free from weeds and planting only in 
a well drained soil: upon the first sign of 
the malady spray them with the ammonia- 
cal carbonate of copper solution or use the 
liver of sulphur solutiondeseribedin the last 
number of the Orchard and Garden, p. 
162. Two or three applications of the latter 
preparation will doubtless check the spread 
of the disease and if applied in good season 
may entirely prevent its appearance. 
Writing and Writing Desk*. 
“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, 
As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.” 
Pope. 
“What do you hear from your sister in 
Nebraska?” was asked, not long ago, of a 
bright intelligent woman, a farmer's wife. 
“I haven't heard from her for more than a 
year,” was the answer. “It’s such an un- 
dertaking for me to write a letter that I 
keep putting it off and putting it off, ’till 
I'm ashamed of myself.” 
How many active energetic housekeepers 
find it “such an undertaking” to write a 
letter, or even a short note, or an excuse 
for the children's absence from school! 
Writing materials must be collected from 
their various hiding places about the house, 
and when at last the busy mother sits down 
at the table with pen. ink, blotter, paper, 
envelopes and stamps about her, she is 
pretty sure to find that the children have 
been trying her pen and spoiled it, or that 
the ink has grown thick and dry. Then 
somebody joggles the table and she makes 
a great blot on the very first page; she for- 
gets what she wanted to say, and by the 
time the letter is finished and the envelope 
stamped and addressed, the discouraged 
woman hopes she may never have to write 
another letter. 
Now in this age of the world, it ought to 
be as easy for any woman to write a letter 
as to make a bed. But, in order to do this, 
she needs convenient arrangements for 
writing; not a portfolio or little desk which 
she must hold on her lap and bend over 
till her back aches, but an escritoire of good 
size and just the right height. It should be 
large enough to contain every tiling needed 
in letter-writing and should stand in the 
pleasantest part of the room in which most 
of her time is spent. Then, whenever she 
has five minutes leisure, she can slip into a 
comfortable chair, take up her pen and 
begin to write without any vexatious delay. 
Weekly letters to absent members of the 
family, frequent ones to dear friends, a 
record of the bright sayings and doings and 
the individualities of each child, — these it 
should be a pleasure and not a task to write. 
The account-book should be kept in the 
desk that all expenditures may be daily 
recorded; also, the cook-book in which the 
good house keeper copies or pastes new 
recipes which she has tried and finds worthy 
of preservation. 
All the large furniture dealers keep on 
hand a variety of beautiful escritoires, or 
will make to order just such a one as any 
particular person may fancy: so that with 
a full pocket-book, there is no difficulty in 
suiting one's self exactly. But the impres- 
sion seems to prevail that such an article of 
furniture is beyond the range of possibilities 
for poor people, or those who have very little 
money to spend. So they put up with all 
sorts of inconveniences, not knowing that 
a pretty and convenient secretary may be 
had for a few dollars, while a home-made 
one, equally serviceable, neednot cost much 
more than the labor of construction. We 
urge every one of our readers to claim for 
herself the privilege of owning one of these 
useful articles which she will soon consider 
indispensable. For the benefit of those 
Fip. 1587. 
who must study economy, we give descrip- 
tions and illustrations of desks which may 
be easily made. 
The simplest arrangement is a board 
hinged to the wall, or, better still, to a nar- 
row shelf on which the writing materials 
may be kept. It has a narrow protective 
strip at the bottom to keep papers from 
slipping off. and is supported by two hinged 
legs which fold under when the desk is 
down. These should be so arranged as to 
be supported by the mop-board when the 
desk is in use. In order to allow the desk to 
fit close to the wall when it is down, these 
supports must fold inwardly along its length 
or, being hinged to the mop-board, might 
fit into slots in the bottom of the desk. 
This contrivance is of especial value 
where space is limited, and really looks 
very pretty when neatly made, and stained 
or ebonized. 
A Folding Desk. 
A desk which may easily be moved from 
one place to another, in accordance with 
varying conditions of light and heat, is 
made on the principle of the camp chair 
and is shown in Fig. 1586. It may be pro- 
cured of a furniture dealer at slight expense, 
but the making is not beyond the ability of 
any one who can handle tcols and follow a 
