508 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[Decembeb, 
this same group—a disease which has ruined thou¬ 
sands of acres of vineyards iu Southern France and 
adjoining countries, and has its counterpart with 
us in another species, which abounds upon our na¬ 
tive vines in some seasons and localities. The 
whole group of species has many things in com¬ 
mon, and in describing one, an idea of the whole 
will be given. The Lilac Mildew being the most 
easily and generally observed, as it prevails wher¬ 
ever a Lilac is found, and its range is, therefore, 
not very limited, is chosen as a representative of 
the group. If the leaves are examined in autumn, 
they will be found to be covered with a white—a 
dirty white—substance, which a hand-lens shows to 
consist of avast multitude of fine cobwebby threads 
running over and closely clinging to the surface of 
the leaf. In figure 1, a small portion of a leaf is 
represented as seen with a strong magnifying glass. 
The heavy lines or bars represent the veins, or ribs, 
of the leaf, and upon them, and the parts of the 
leaf between, the fine threads are seen, with here 
and there small, dark bodies, which will concern us 
further on. If a cross-section of the leaf is made 
with a sharp knife, and a side view obtained under 
the compound microscope, something like figure 2 
is seen. The lower portion of the illustration, 
showing the upper part of the leaf in section, with 
its closely packed and irregular cells, upon which a 
thread of the mildew is running with two short 
branches, a, extending away from the leaf and into 
the air. On the lower side of the thread are small, 
"“knotty” outgrowths, b, b, which penetrate the 
surface of the leaf, and serve to hold the mildew 
to, and also to absorb the nourishment from, the 
leaf. The short, upward branches are observed to 
Fig. 2.— CROSS-SECTION OF LEAF. 
be divided up into small, nearly oval, parts. These 
are the spores, which form in great abundance in 
the early part of the season, and serve as a rapid 
means of propagating the mildew ; they are the 
summer spores, which germinate at once—that is, 
in only a few hours after they have fallen from the 
stem. The dark specks in figure 1 are somewhat 
complicated bodies, and are for the purpose of car¬ 
rying the mildew through the winter, and are, 
therefore, concerned in the formation and protec¬ 
tion of the winter spores. Two of these oval bod¬ 
ies are shown in figure 3, one of them whole, and 
the other broken open and the contents partly in 
view. These bodies are seen to be provided with a 
number of arms—most of which, for convenience, 
are omitted in the engraving—and the tips branched 
and divided in a peculiar and attractive manner. 
These arms serve to hold the body to the leaf or 
other substance, much as the hooks and other ar¬ 
rangements of various seeds enable them to cling 
to clothing, wool of sheep, hair of cattle, etc. 
Aside from the arms, the body, which we may call 
a spore-ease, consists of a thick wall of cells, inside 
•of which there are a number of large oval, transpa¬ 
rent bodies, containing smaller ones within them. 
These last are the spores. In figure 4, the spore- 
sacs are shown entirely removed from the hard, 
brown spore-case, and their manner of union to 
each other is also seen. A spore, very highly mag¬ 
nified, is given on the right hand. These spores re¬ 
main in the thick coverings through the winter, 
and germinate in the spring. 
We have thus traced the history of the White 
Mould upon the Lilac, and it is essentially the same 
in the species of this group which thrive upon 
other kinds of plants. As they are superficial— 
that is, do not send their threads down through the 
tissue of the leaves, as iu the case of the Potato 
Hot, rusts, etc., they are generally of a less serious 
nature, though at times, as in the vineyards of Eu¬ 
rope already mentioned, they are able to do much 
damage. The remedy is Flowers of Sulphur, ap¬ 
plied in early summer, while the stalk-spores are 
forming, and at intervals through the rest of the 
season. The winter-spores can be destroyed by 
burning the leaves after they fall in autumn. 
Caring for Young Trees. 
Young trees, whether fruit or ornamental, are 
subject in winter to injury by winds and by ani¬ 
mals. To prevent them from being torn up or 
thrashed about by storms, they are sometimes 
staked, and this is often so badly done that the trees 
are in worse condition the next spring than they 
would have been without the stakes. A fruit, or 
other deciduous tree, with good roots, and well 
planted, rarely needs any stakes ; but with ever¬ 
greens, the case is different. In planting, the tops 
of these cannot be cut back, as can the others, 
without ruining them, and as they present an al¬ 
most solid surface to the winds, they must have 
help to allow them to remain erect. For ever¬ 
greens, nothing is so useful as stones placed upon 
the surface at their base. The stones may be large 
or small, but enough should be used to fairly an¬ 
chor the tree. This avoids all chafing and injury by 
slakes or guys, holds the tree firmly, and as it 
sways by the wind, the center of motion is in the 
natural place, at the surface of the earth. Stones 
should be put in place at the time of planting, as 
then they serve to both keep the trees in place, and 
as a mulch. Deciduous trees may also be treated 
in this manner. The winter injury by animals is 
mainly from mice and rabbits, not forgetting that 
most destructive animal— 
Man.—T here are some men w r ho have no respect 
for a tree, and one is at times forced to think that 
this feeling of indifference is an in-born hatred of 
trees—a sort of congenital arbo) -phobia. These 
persons will hitch a horse to a young tree even if 
hitching posts are provided. If they drive into a 
place when the snow is on the ground, they disre¬ 
gard paths, but take a short cut for the house, tak¬ 
ing care, however, to choose their straight path 
Fig. 4.— SPORE-SACS AND SPORE, 
where the greatest number of young trees are to be 
run over. Tree-boxes, and fence-wires to keep such 
in the road, will help, but after these are provided, 
the patience of several Jobs will be needed for the 
unforeseen damage these men will contrive to do. 
LATH PROTECTOR AGAINST ANIMALS. 
Mice. —It is vastly easier to prevent their attacks 
than to write us next spring asking how to repair 
the damage. All rubbish in which they may har¬ 
bor, should be cleared away from the trees, the ani¬ 
mals liking to work under cover. The general 
remedy is, to make a mound of solid earth—no dead 
weeds or rubbish with it—a foot or more high at 
the base of the tree. The earth should be firmly 
compacted, and the cone made steep and smooth. 
Cases have come to our knowledge where this was 
the cause of an injury greater than that it was de¬ 
signed to prevent. While the mound was still soft, 
the swaying of the tree by the wind pushed the earth 
away from it, leaving a space between that and the 
trunk. While in this condition the earth froze 
hard, and, in the subsequent swaying of the tree, 
the trunk was brought in contact with, and ground 
against, the frozen mound, bruising and rubbing the 
bark most disastrously. This should be guarded 
against, and the earth tramped again if need be. 
After the mound is frozen solid, the danger from 
this source is over. Still better, but more trouble¬ 
some, is some shield around the base of the tree, a 
strip of heavy slieathing-paper, or better, a band 
of sheet-iron, or tin from old fruit cans. The lower 
edge being thrust into the earth, a single turn of 
wire near the top will hold it. Tramping of light 
snow's is necessary to prevent mice from working 
under them, and when they are deep and solid 
enough to allow mice to work above a protecting 
band, the snow must be pressed down or removed. 
Rabbits are as much more destructive as they are 
larger than mice, but they are more easily kept off. 
So great is the antipathy of these creatures to dead 
animal matters, that they are readily repelled. Rub¬ 
bing the trunk with liver or other cheap meat, or 
with the flesh of a dead rabbit, is effective. In 
large orchards at the West, blood from slaughter¬ 
ing is used, sprinkled by the use of a swab made by 
tying a few corn husks to a handle. Mechanical 
protectors may be used as against mice, but they, 
of course, must be much higher. A most effective 
protector is made with common laths and annealed 
wire ; the engraving makes a long description un¬ 
necessary. Corn stalks put together in the same 
manner as the lath, or laid against the tree, and 
bound together,have been found equally efficacious. 
Notes from the Pines. 
The English horticultural journals have, for well 
nigh a year, given very doleful comments on the 
weather, which has evidently been most unfavora¬ 
ble to cultivators, whether of the garden or field. 
As with the islanders, our weather in these autuma 
months has been of a most remarkable kind—but, 
in contrast with theirs, in the direction of very un¬ 
usual warmth, and of a dryness almost amounting 
to drouth. With every temptation to discuss the 
weather, I refrain, knowing from experience iu 
reading the English journals, how irksome this 
iteration becomes to those not especially interested 
in the weather at a given place and time. But 
there are some practical lessons to be drawn from 
our present unusual autumnal weather—and that 
it is really unusual, the records testify. 
That Most Disastrous Winter 
of 1873-4—which 6wept away evergreens that had 
been planted 10 or 15 years, as well as native Red- 
