April 3 1884. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
275 
spreading of the fungus. You will do well also to paint the hot-water pipes 
with the sulphur mixture, not, however, having them very hot when it is 
applied. Still they may be heated. Raise the temperature of the house 5° 
by fire heat and maintain a buoyant atmosphere, anything approaching to 
mugginess to be carefully avoided. The top ventilators should be left slightly 
open all night and further opened shortly after the sun reaches the house in the 
morning, and do not close early in the afternoon in the usual manner for 
promoting a humid atmosphere. We are not without hope that under the 
treatment suggested the Vines will improve. Your letter is so explicit that 
we fail to see you would derive any advantage from a personal interview. 
We shall be glad to have a further report in the course of a month on the 
condition of the Vines. 
Names of Plants ( Youth). —1, Erica camea ; 2, Lithospermum prostratum ; 
3, Omphalodes verna. (C. IF.).—We do not recognise the varieties, one of 
the blooms of which was quite withered and the others injured in transit; 
nor do we undertake, as we have many times stated, to name Camellias or 
other varieties of florists’ flowers that originated from seed. They are far 
too numerous, and many of them too closely resembling each other, for 
anyone to do so without actual comparison with others in a large collection. 
Smoking Bees ( D. Smith ).—“ P. H. P.,” use3 an ordinary bellows smoker, 
and says you cannot do better than get “Clark’s American Smoker,” price 3s. 
This will burn almost anything, and keep alight for hours. Rotten wood 
answers well, but rags, dry sawdust, brown paper, &c., answer equally well. 
This smoker can be obtained from Messrs. Neighbour, 149, Regent Street, 
London. 
COVENT GARDEN MARKET— April 2nd. 
A FEW samples of new Grapes to hand, but with the gloom over business and a good 
supply of old, they meet with a cold reception. Prices generally barely maintained. 
Large supples of vegetables. 
FRUIT. 
s. 
d. 
8. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
8. 
d. 
Apples .. .. 
£ sieve 
1 
6 
to 5 
0 
Nectarines .. .. 
dozen 
0 
0 
to 0 
0 
*1 • • • • 
per barrel 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Oranges. 
.. 100 
6 
0 
10 
0 
Apricots 
box 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Peaches. 
dozen 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Chestnuts .. 
bushel 10 
0 
0 
0 
Pears, kitchen .. 
dozen 
1 
0 
1 
6 
Figs .. .. 
dozen 
0 
0 
0 
0 
„ dessert 
dozen 
1 
0 
5 
0 
Filberts .. .. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Pine Apples English .. lb. 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Cobs 
per lb. 
1 
s 
1 
6 
Plums and Damsons 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Grapes .. .. 
.. lb. 
5 
0 
10 
0 
Strawberries.. 
.. lb. 
4 
0 
8 
0 
Lemon .. .. 
• 
c. case 
15 
0 
21 
0 
St. Michael Pines 
..each 
« 
0 
8 
0 
VEGETABLES 
s. 
d. 
8. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
Artichokes 
• • 
dozen 
2 
0 to 4 
0 
Mushrooms .. .. 
punnet 
1 
0 
to 1 
6 
Beans, Kidney 
100 
1 
0 
l 
6 
Mustard and Cress 
punnet 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Beet, Red 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Onions . 
bushel 
2 
6 
3 
3 
Broccoli .. . 
bundle 
0 
9 
1 
0 
Parsley .. dozen bunches 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Brussels Sprouts . 
) sieve 
1 
6 
2 
6 
Parsnips. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Cabbage .. . 
dozen 
0 
6 
1 
0 
Potatoes. 
cwt. 
4 
0 
9 
0 
Capsicums 
a a 
100 
1 
6 
2 
0 
„ Kidney .. 
cwt. 
4 
0 
5 
0 
Carrots .. . 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
4 
„ New.. .. 
.. ft. 
0 
4 
0 
8 
Cauliflowers . 
a . 
. dozen 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Rhubarb. 
bundle 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Celery .. . 
bundle 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Salsafy. 
bundle 
1 
0 
0 
a 
Cole worts 
doz. 
bunches 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Scorzonera .. .. 
bundle 
1 
6 
0 
0 
Cucumbers . 
, . 
. each 
0 
8 
0 
9 
Seakale. 
basket 
1 
0 
1 
6 
Endive .. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Shallots. 
0 
S 
0 
0 
Herbs . . 
. bunch 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Spinach. 
bushel 
2 
6 
3 
« 
Leeks 
, bunch 
0 
3 
0 
4 
Tomatoes .. .. 
2 
0 
3 
6 
Lettuoe .. 
1 
0 
1 
6 
Turnips. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
0 
MILDEW IN WHEAT. 
(Continued from page 256.) 
Before entering upon the disposal or destruction of the germs 
or spores of this mischievous fungus we must refer to some of the 
most prominent forms of its species, and their time and mode of 
attack, together with a statement of those districts wherein it is 
most prevalent, also by looking back and noting those years when 
it has proved particularly injurious. The conditions under which 
the disease is developed to the greatest degree must not be omitted, 
such as the situation of the farm or fields, with the soil and climate 
which favour or resist the disease. We must also consider how 
previous cultivation may inadvertency favour the disease, or may 
by judicious and special management evade loss from it. The sort 
of Wheat, the period of sowing, and the quantity of seed used per 
acre must be thought of. The period of harvest, the flowering period, 
and the date of first observation of the disease must, with other 
general observations, be noticed with a practical minuteness so 
essential in enabling us to combat the disease, and to some extent to 
evade it by anticipatory management in various ways. 
One of the most singular means by which this fungus may be 
unwittingly propagated—we allude more particularly to a special 
means of propagating or reviving the real and fatal mildew—is related 
in Mr. Little’s essay before referred to. This states “ that the 
form in which the spores (called Teleuto spores, or rest spores) are 
capable of lying dormant and retaining their vitality. Starting from 
this point—that is, with the blackened straw of the previous year, 
we find that in the spring the Teleuto spores are quickened into 
life, and from them are produced another kind of spores (Promycelium 
spores), which are said to be unable to retain life and bear fruit 
unless they can meet with a Barberry tree or bush. Having settled 
upon a leaf of one of these shrubs the spore bores into the interior, 
and there developes into mycelium, which in the course of 
about eighty days produces rusty patches both on the upper and 
under sides of the Barberry leaf. From these spots of rust two 
different kinds of spore are shed—HScidium spores from the under, 
Spermagonia from the upper side of the leaf, and it is supposed by- 
Mr. Plowright they are of different sexes, the smaller spores or 
Spermagonia playing the part of the male. iEcidium spores (perhaps 
fertilised by the Spermagonia) are distributed in the air in incal¬ 
culable numbers, and those which fall on plants adapted to fulfil 
the office of host plants, germinate under favourable atmospheric 
conditions—that is to say, in damp weather, and throw out a germ 
tube, which enters the host plant through one of its stomata or 
breathing pores. Having effected an entrance, mycelium is again 
developed in the tissue of the plant (Wheat or Grass), and the fungus 
has now obtained possession of a home in which it can complete its 
life cycle. In the course of ten or twelve days Uredo spores are 
produced on the outside of the leaf. These are distributed, and 
germinate and reproduce their kind. The reproduction of Uredo is 
repeated generation after generation until the host plant approaches 
maturity, when the mycelium throws out Teleuto spores or mildew, 
and the life cycle is completed.” 
In the foregoing quotation we recognise the identity of the 
fungus which produces Barberry rust with that which afterwards 
produces a rust on wheat and eventually mildew, which is assumed 
as undisputably proved. Still it is disputed by some authorities, 
although we know a considerable number of practical farmers who 
are believers in the theory from having suffered serious losses from 
the mildew having spread from the Barberry bushes. To prove this 
we were, about twenty-five years ago, invited by a farmer in North 
Hampshire to visit his farm, on the estate of the late Sir William 
Heathcote, Bart., to view the blight extending over a large portion 
of a field of Wheat of about 12 acres. The rust was upon the 
Barberry buffi in the hedge on the north-west side of the field, and 
the blight, which proved to be mildew, started directly from the 
Barberry bush, and gradually spread out like a fan opened, and upon 
close examination we found the straw discoloured by patches of a 
black and brown colour. This was about the last week in June, the 
Wheat previously looked well, with a bulk of straw equal to a crop 
of thirty bushels per acre in a favourable season. We visited this 
farm again at Michaelmas, and found that the whole of this crop 
had been cut and harvested as loose corn, and given to pigs for food 
in the farmyard, as it afforded only skeleton corn, which could 
neither be threshed nor separated from the husk, as in the ordinary 
practice of threshing. 
Before seeing the above-noted result we were as sceptical as 
many others were, or may be now, as to this shrub being the medium 
of introduction of so destructive a mildew. Even in this or other 
cases it would not have succeeded if the weather had not been dark 
with drizzling rain, and it is most probably in this way that the 
theory is discredited, because the same results might not, and probably 
would not have occurred of a bright and sunny season. We can, 
however, well remember instances when the Wheat crop appeared 
safe from blight of any description, yet in fine hot weather when 
the harvest has been proceeding with every prospect of success, the 
grain became shrivelled, and in a portion of the same field the injury 
to the latest cutting was very serious both in quality and weight 
per bushel. Such sudden mishaps as this are by no means frequent, 
and this is fortunate, for it is far beyond our control, and can only 
be successfully guarded against by the early cutting of the crop, thus 
preventing any latent disease or partial mildew from proceeding to 
disaster through delay in the harvest field, which also, quite irre¬ 
spective of mildew or other disease, seriously injures the prospects of 
the farmer should bad weather set in, as was the case last year in 
nearly all the latest districts of the kingdom. It must therefore be 
admitted that the mildew in Wheat will be credited with having 
taught a lesson—the advantages of early cutting of the Wheat, and 
especially in those cases where the crop is laid or lodged through the 
weight and bulk of the crop. 
There are some interesting statements in Mr. Little’s essay 
afforded by correspondence with a large number of practical farmers 
in various districts of the kingdom, and it appears from these reports 
that the mildew years did not seriously affect the whole kingdom in 
the same seasons, no doubt owing to the difference of soil and 
