952 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 29, 1922 
The Biight; Now It Comes Like a Wolf 
The Beginning.—L ike the liny begin¬ 
ning of some great conflagration, spread¬ 
ing from the first burned leaf, and pres¬ 
ently sweeping the entire field, until what 
was once so fresh and green, is siinply 
row on row of lifeless ghosts—thus is the 
late blight. From now on every careful 
potato grower will scan his field with 
care for the first withered leaf. If he 
proves that withering to be due to me¬ 
chanical injury, he will draw a sigh of 
relief, but if he cannot, he knows it to 
lie the searing linger of his ancient enemy, 
late blight, and prepares to give a special 
timely application of Bordeaux, (liven 
the right weapon, what, counts most is 
the thoroughness with which it is used. 
All! Just that. 
Persistence Needed.—F or, and I can 
almost bear the crackle of the paper as 
a good many subscribers turn a page 
here. it. sometimes happens that an un¬ 
sprayed field survives and the sprayed 
vines die. I p here in Now York State 
it is a common thing to hear this kind 
of a joke told on some unfortunate that 
sprayed his potatoes. If a man sprays 
twice in a season, his neighbors will ex¬ 
pect him to shed the blight. Although 
he is actually as subject to the floating 
spores of late blight ns they, it is ex¬ 
pected somehow that a spraying will be 
a sort of vaccination for the vine.. Hap¬ 
hazard, shiftless spraying or dusting has 
done more harm t.<> potato culture here 
than it ever did good. It gives about the 
same results as would be gotten by a 
nurse who forgot to give the patient more 
than one or two doses of medicine. 
TWO Forms of Biight. —There are 
two distinct kinds of the blight, early and 
late. The early blight lias never been 
satisfactorily controlled, coming on late 
in July when the leaves of the early 
plant have come In a certain stage of 
maturity, or when their vitality has be¬ 
come weakened by the first stages of rip¬ 
ening', The tubers arc not hurt at all, 
except as to size, oil account of their 
vines' premature death- It is possible 
to rush the potato plant ahead so fast, 
to maintain the haulm in such splendid 
vigor, that one can actually beat the early 
blight. One is obliged to give the Bor¬ 
deaux as a tonic about once a week, to 
get satisfactory results, besides doing 
everything in one's power that will con¬ 
tribute to strong growth. And then when 
the vines are interlaced across the rows 
and there is no more hope of covering 
them with Bordeaux, the big tight begins. 
The more vitality you have worked into 
the vine, the larger the tubers will be 
at the finish. 
Spread of Disease —The late blight 
fungus requires moderately cool weather. 
It finds its way into the leaf through the 
pores as they drink in moisture, and is 
deposited in the tiny cells, of which every 
leaf is a combination. This is the natural 
seed bed of the fungus, which is now 
called mycelium, as it Starts growing. 
The mycelium spreads among the leaf 
cells, drawing its nourishment therefrom, 
until the leaf has become filled. It fruits 
at this period, running shoots of mycelium 
out through the pores. These branch 
and produce small pear-shaped bodies ai 
the tips of the branches, which are as 
seed to a plant. When they fall, it is 
upon the leaf of the potato plant, or to 
be carried across field by the wind. _ Those 
upon the leaves begin to grow with the 
first rain or dew, and form a number 
of spores, that will in turn enter the leaf 
cells and become mycelium. Those which 
fall upon the ground will cause rot of the 
tubers. With the constant fruiting of the 
mycelium and the broadcasting of spores, 
it is not long before the entire plant is 
filled with the growth. 
Unseen Growth. —While the fungus 
is spreading its mycelium through the 
leaf tissues it cannot be detected. But 
at the fruiting stage it. is apparent by the 
browning of the leaf, which finally turns 
black and decomposes, giving off a rather 
disagreeable odor. If one of these areas 
is examined, a border of grayish mildew 
may be seen with the uaked eye. Under 
a lens this can be verified as the fruiting 
mycelium. Although the fungus must 
have cool weather for the beginning of 
its growth, spore production is greatly 
increased if the cool is alternated with 
shorter periods of muggy, cloudy weather. 
When the conditions are exactly right, 
it is only a matter of two or three days 
until you write the obituary of what may 
have been some very happy prospects. 
Early History. —In the years of 1845 
and 1N4(> the blight made such headway 
in Europe that it. practically ruined the 
crop. Of course, it had appeared before, 
ami old records show that it had done 
more or less damage ever since potatoes 
were grown. But in the years above men¬ 
tioned the conditions were exactly right 
to nurture the blight fungus, and it de¬ 
scended like ft pestilence, bringing such 
heavy losses to potato growers first in 
]X45, and then the next year completing 
their ruin. Those were wet years, and 
they were not using Bordeaux at that 
time. A great many growers gave up, 
and the acreage for some years was great¬ 
ly reduced. From then on we have the 
story of the uphill work done by growers 
who would not be downed. At first it 
was thought that by finding a new and 
strong variety of seed which was very 
resistant, to blight, the trouble would eud. 
A seed grower spent several years of his 
life in propagating this strain, and ac¬ 
tually succeeded in evolving Paterson's 
Victoria, Some idea can lie obtained of 
the seriousness of the situation by the 
fact that Queen Victoria wrote to Mr. 
Paterson with her own hand, ordering a 
supply for the royal farms, From then 
on ensued a long and costly struggle to 
maintain the blight-resisting qualities in 
the new strain. It was about 1X70 be¬ 
fore the strong, new varieties brought out 
by Mr. Paterson fell before the blight. 
A series of wet sea suns ended with the 
disastrous year of 1879. and upset all 
those painfully conceived theories in re¬ 
gard to resistance by using fresh strains 
of seed. It was debated upon with much 
anxiety in the English Parliament. An 
eminent, botanist was engaged to superin¬ 
tend a crossing with the wild species from 
South America. At the beginning of the 
twentieth century a surprising number 
of growers had taken to propagating, 
With the result that the number of now 
varieties was most confusing. It was 
only necessary fur a new variety to be 
advertised as blight-proof to be guaran¬ 
teed a ready sale. So was there brought, 
about the great potato boom of 11)02-4. 
when the blight was again prevalent, 
sound tubers sold high, and a frenzy for 
new varieties seemed to seize the growers. 
would have scarcely attracted attention. 
The writei has as a physician attended 
all kinds of contagious cases, and yet. 
has never in this way caught any of them. 
I have attended smallpox, cholera and the 
rest, and here 1 am, never having had 
a serious illness in all my long life. 
When I was IS years old 1 took a con¬ 
tract to clear, by grubbing, chopping, etc., 
a lot of land. There was one five-acre 
lot that was thickly overgrown by the 
largest growth of so-called poison sumac, 
medicinally known as Bints Toxieoden- 
drou (poison ivy) that I ever saw. Dur¬ 
ing the clearing of this live-acre lot I 
grubbed and burned many tons of this 
poison, and it. had no more effect on me 
than if 1 had been burning dry cornstalks. 
Then I have known persons who could 
not pass along under the branches of a 
tree on which the limbs of this poison 
ivy, or oak, were growing without getting 
seriously poisoned. Now why there should 
he this immunity for myself, and such 
deadly poisonous effect to others, who 
even had not touched the plant, is one of 
the curious things of which no physician 
has yet been able to tell. 
While engaged in this labor during tbo 
month of August there was scarcely a 
day that I did not dig up from one to a 
half-dozen nests of yellow-jackets, a small 
kind of hornet which burrows in the 
ground, and is notoriously cross and vin¬ 
dictive. I have not the remotest idea how 
many times I was stung by one nr more 
of them; certainly more than 100 times, 
and I never lost an hour’s work because 
of them. Now it is undoubtedly this in¬ 
nate immunity that makes the 'difference 
in the taking of contagion, or absorbing 
.4 Teeter-board in a Shady Spot 
Tubers were purchased at fabulous prices 
for more than their weight in gold. A 
lawsuit over the non-delivery of three 
pounds of seed disclosed the fact that it 
had been sold elsewhere at $800 per lb. 
One promoter boasted that he bad sold 
1.000 sprouts off one tuber, and sprouts 
were selling at $15 to $20 each. These 
varieties were mostly old friends with 
new names, alas. 
But while the potato boom was run¬ 
ning through England, the department 
of agriculture in Ireland, headed by a 
young Scot. ,f. It. Campbell, had been 
making experiments with Bouille Bordo- 
laise, a copper sulphate solution now in 
use as Bordeaux. They were able to 
prove that this system was most efficient 
in checking the blight. Then, too, the 
growers wlm had planted $20 sprouts had 
harvested their ludicrous crop. This was 
the end of the search for new varieties, 
and the potato boom. 
The blight is like a pestilence. It wan¬ 
ders whither it listeth. The man who 
sprays his plants thoroughly from above 
and below may lie across the grisly trail, 
but he onu save his crop. The others 
must trust to the wind to save them by 
driving the spores away. But who trusts 
the wind? MRS. F. H. UNGER. 
poison. But why the immunity? Nobody 
knows, and perhaps never will. It un¬ 
doubtedly accounts for the different action 
of bee stings. But really danger from bee 
stings is so remote that it is not worth 
worrying ftboct. Probably not one person 
in ten thousand ever saw, or ever will see. 
a death that results from the sting of a 
bee. So wlmt is the use to worry ? Cur¬ 
ing rheumatism by causing bees to sting 
the rheumatic person has been proven 
over and over to he sheer humbug. 8" 
don’t try it. a. w. foreman, m. d. 
Bee Stings and Poisons 
There seems to he a regular epidemic 
of bee stings reported in The It. N.-Y. 
lately, accompanied with mauy different 
absurd accounts concerning the same. The 
writer lies kept bees for more than 50 
year- and has been stung hundreds of 
times, and is here yet in bis eigllty-third 
year. He is also u physician, having had 
nearly 00 years' experience as a phy¬ 
sician and has never met with a fatai 
case from bee sting. Yet I must say I 
believe it has occurred. I know of one 
rase of a farmer wlm had often handled 
bees and bad been stung. I was told by 
members of his own family, many times. 
I knew the physician wlm attended this 
man. and I knew hint to be an excellent 
physician, and he told- me that although 
the man was dead before lie got to him. 
there could be no other way of accounting 
for his death. It. was known by his 
family that he bad just been stung, and 
there could be no mistake about that 
There is nothing more remarkable known 
to physicians 5 than the fact that there are 
cases where individuals have died sud¬ 
denly from the most trivial causes, when 
under other circumstances tin* ailment 
causing death in one case, ordinurilv. 
A Quarantine for Diphtheria 
Will you tell us what can be done in 
the following case? A girl had diphthe¬ 
ria. was sick in bed three days. The doc¬ 
tor came three times, gave anti-toxin 
twice. The third time he came he said 
he did not need to come any more, as she 
was getting along all right, and that the 
board of health of the* town would semi 
someone to take cultures every three 
days until no more germs were found. 
The doctor notified the board of health. 
The father also notified them twice. It 
is now eight weeks since she was sick, 
and no one has ever put in an appearance 
to do a thing but put the quarantine 
card on the house the day the doctor 
made his last visit, and, of course, they 
were forbidden to sell any of their pro¬ 
duce. They have fumigated thoroughly. 
Now can they go abend mul sell tlieir 
butter and eggs and vegetables? They 
live outside the corporation, but the girls 
go to the city school. They are perfectly 
well and all right so far ns anyone can 
see. Can they go to school now? Tell 
us the right thing to do. The patient 
was takgn to the city for a while to have 
cultures taken, but parents were told 
they had no right to let her leave the 
premises, She had two negative cultures 
hut not in succession when they were told 
not to bring her in again. It has been 
two weeks now since any cultures have 
been taken. MRS, e. j. s. 
There is. of Course, only one “right 
thing to do" when a member of the family 
is afflicted with a communicable disease. 
That is to obey the orders of tbe health 
authorities and to co-operate with them 
in an endeavor to check I lie spread of the 
disease. This always means inconveni¬ 
ence and. frequently, serious financial 
loss, but to do otherwise is simply to en¬ 
danger the health and lives of others ami 
to make oneself responsible for possible 
consequences which lie cannot foresee. 
Diphtheria is one of the most dangerous 
of the diseases with which we have to 
deal, and yet it frequently exists in so 
mild a form as to be unrecognizable with¬ 
out laboratory tests. It is by menus of 
these mild cases that it is easily spread. 
Children or adults who think that they 
are suffering from ordinary sore throats 
are frequently really walking cases of 
diphtheria, carrying the contagion whore- 
over they go and often giving it to others 
who do not possess their resistance and 
who. consequently, succumb to it. Those 
woo recover from either mild or severe 
attacks are likely, too, to continue to car¬ 
ry the germs of this disease in their 
throats for weeks, or even months. This 
is particularly true if they have bad ton¬ 
sils or more or less chronically inflamed 
throats. Though apparently entirely 
well themselves, they are quite capable of 
infecting others with whom they come in 
Contact and spreading Ihe disease broad¬ 
cast. All health officials of experience 
have seen repeated instances of this and 
know the difficulty of suppressing the 
disease while "carriers” exist. 
It is possible, fortunately, to ascertain, 
by means of a laboratory examination of 
some of the secretion of the nose and 
throat, whether or nut diphtheria germs 
are present. This is Called taking cul¬ 
tures, for the germs themselves are really 
grown as a culture upon substances in 
which they thrive and, when growing in 
these cultures, are easily recognized. It 
is the duly of the attending physician or 
the health officer to take these cultures 
at reasonable intervals after a patient has 
recovered from an attack of diphtheria 
and to keep the patient under quarantine 
until two successive cultures, taken not 
less than 21 hours apart, prove to be free 
from diphtheria germs. This is not ab¬ 
solute proof of recovery, for germs are 
sometimes present and escape the swab 
of the physician, hut, if no other symp¬ 
toms of the disease are present aud two 
successive, cultures do not disclose the 
germs, it is considered practically safe to 
release the patient. 
Sometimes these germs persist for 
months, though finally losing their viru¬ 
lence. If. after 12 weeks, germs are still 
found, the health officer will hove a "viru¬ 
lence lest" made. That is, it will be as¬ 
certained by tests upon lower animals 
whether these germs are still capable of 
transmitting disease. If it is found that 
they have lost their power for doing 
harm, even (hough they continue to live 
and multiply, the patient, may safelv 
mingle with others. This work' requires 
the facilities of laboratories and is done 
without charge in tins State, cither the 
State laboratory at Albany or approved 
laboratories elsewhere doing the work at 
the State's expense. 
. Your letter is not very clear as to con¬ 
ditions in your case. You state that "no 
one has ever put in an appearance to do 
a thing." and yet that cultures have been 
taken and two negative ones secured, 
though not in Succession. It is evident 
from this that someone has been giving 
the case attention, I can only surmise 
that the health officer is now awaiting the 
expiration of the required 12 weeks to 
have a virulence test made, being satis¬ 
fied that further cultures can only con¬ 
firm the results of those already taken. 
While.there is no required interval with¬ 
in which tests shall be marie, two weeks 
is too long to wait, unless, as suggested 
above, repeated cultures have shown that 
only a virulence ’test is likely to clear up 
matters, If you have been neglected by 
the health authorities and cultures have 
not been. taken from tlu* throat of your 
child at intervals of not greater than a 
week after her recovery, without satisfac¬ 
tory explanation, write to the State De¬ 
partment of Health at Albany. N. Y.. 
and state, not only the facts in the case, 
but all the facts in the case, and your 
complaint will receive attention. 
M. B. D. 
Debts of Minor 
A sold his milk route to his minor son. 
B, B bought a lot of milk from his 
neighbors, finally disappeared for parts 
unknown in another State, owing his 
neighbors lungs sums of money for milk. 
After B disappeared A tried to settle B’s 
accounts for (10 cents on the dollar. Some 
accepted ; others would not. A offered to 
pay one creditor in full if lie would prom¬ 
ise never to tell the other creditors he 
had received payment in full. B lived 
with A. using A's barns, etc., until a few 
weeks before he disappeared, but during 
this brief interval he hired rooms- and 
board for self and horses from neighbors. 
Has this any bearing on the case? Both 
A and B are abundantly able to pay all 
bills in full, It. who lias since returned, 
refuses to pay because he was a minor, 
and A, wlm is very prominent in the 
church, claims he was justified in nor 
paying his son’s creditors, because they 
refused to accept the settlement, of (10 per¬ 
cent offered. A and B did not show auv 
hooks, nor give any account or explana¬ 
tion as to what became of their creditors' 
money. What their creditors would like 
to know is whether these bills can be col¬ 
lected by law. or must they submit to 
sharp practice? Q. 0. w. 
Massachusetts. 
One who deals with an infant does so at 
his own risk. An infant is only lia¬ 
ble for necessities furnished to him during 
his minority. He may disaffirm his con¬ 
tracts before or at the time he becomes of 
age. He is liable for crimes the same as 
an adult. In the case you mention, the 
father was not obliged to make good the 
loss of the son, and you would have been 
wise to have taken your share with the 
other creditors. N. T. 
