575 
im BUBAL flEW-YORXCR. 
other to make as large a growth as it would, 
and then noting the result in the succeeding 
crops. There are other reasons why the 
leaves of the grass should not be eaten closely, 
and one of these is the protection which they 
afford to the grass in the winter. The leaves 
hold the snow, and keep the grass from sudden 
changes in freezing and thawing. Therefore 
the practice of pasturing Timothy meadows 
cannot be commended; and the only excep¬ 
tion that I know of, would be in case the 
soil were very rich, and the grass making too 
luxuriant a growth, so that the plants would 
be likely to smother each other and make too 
much dead grass in the succeeding crop; in 
such a case it might be judicious to pasture 
lightly in the fall; but not to the extent of 
leaving the ground bare. That there are 
other reasons why Timothy meadows die out, 
besides pasturing, I have no doubt, such as 
great drought, insect ravages, etc., which 
cannot be prevented by the farmer. But to 
preserve meadows, let the grass grow as much 
as it will after cutting it for hay, without 
pasturing. 
Cuyahoga County, Ohio. 
FROM PROF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
This subject, notwithstanding all that has 
been written upon it, requires careful consid¬ 
eration, for if we get one dollar’s worth of 
pasture this year and lose two dollars' worth 
of hay the next, we are greatly to blame for 
not learning our business. As a rule, most 
meadows should not be pastured after mow¬ 
ing. If a liberal amount of fertilizing ma¬ 
terial be applied after mowing, or m the 
spring, then fertile meadows may be pastured 
without injury. Contrary to the usual prac¬ 
tice, we pasture our meadows, when we have 
any, the same as our other grass land, but 
never very closely or when the ground is wet. 
The effect of pasturing and fertilizing mead¬ 
ows may be illustrated by our practice this 
and last year. In 1887 we sowed a 16-acre 
field with wheat, and through a misunder¬ 
standing, about four acres were seeded to 
Timothy immediately after the drilling of the 
wheat. The following spring the whole field 
was seeded to clover, but the Timothy had 
such a start on the four acres referred to, 
that but little clover grew. Last year the 
field was mowed and afterwards pastured. 
This year the part producing clover was put 
into corn, and the Timothy was saved. Early 
in the spring, 290 pounds per acre of a mix¬ 
ture of equal parts of cotton-seed-bull ashes, 
cotton-seed meal and superphosphate were 
sowed. The hay, nearly all Timothy, was cut 
July 9th, well cured iu the shock, and drawn 
in and weighed on July 11th and 12th. The 
area, when measured, proved to be 3.85 acres, 
and the yield of hay, 12 tons 190 pounds, or 
3.14 tons per acre. 
Grasses, like other plants, want an abund¬ 
ance of food. Whether we pasture and then 
fertilize, or whether we do neither, depends 
largely on conditions. Meadows on dryish, 
thin uplands, should not be pastured under 
any circumstances, because they receive no 
manures, the plants are weak, thin on the 
ground and require the winter and spring 
protection from cold and drying winds, which 
the aftermath gives. Orchard Grass if cut 
early, is often benefited by pasturing, while 
Timothy suffers most, Blue Grass or Red- 
top not so much. Meadows on low, rich lands, 
if old and too thick in the bottom to 
produce a fair length of grass, may often be 
pastured severely with benefit to them, pro¬ 
vided they be thoroughly harrowed and 
treated with a dressing of ashes and cotton¬ 
seed meal or an equivalent, early the follow¬ 
ing spring. Remember that pasturing does 
not mean pulling the plants out by the roots, 
creating off the crowns or filling the field 
with cow tracks. I do not believe that un¬ 
der ordinary circumstances it is economy to 
fertilize land with grass and clover, 
except incidentally. Cut or use the 
grass and clover, feed both with a 
liberal grain ration, at a profit, then 
return to the field all the voidings, which will 
contain more plant food than did the clover 
and grass. Plants were made to feed animals, 
while manure feeds plauts. 
Ithaca, N. Y. 
FROM E. D. DOUGLAS. 
The pasturing of meadows after mowing is 
a matter to be determined by their condition 
after each succeeding crop has been removed. 
Iu this, as in most departments of farm 
practice, no defiuite rule can be given, which 
will apply to all soils, seasons, and conditions. 
Where, however, there is but little aftermath, 
either in consequence of drought, or the pov¬ 
erty of the soil, it may be safely adopted as a 
rule that it should never be removed. On 
meadows where a judicious system of farm 
practice has been applied, the aftermath, 
with an average amount of rainfall, will be 
so heavy that its removal will become a mat¬ 
ter of necessity; otherwise it will smother 
vegetation, and ruiu the succeeding crop. 
There are two ways of accomplishing this 
removal: one by mowing, and the other by 
grazing. Experience has taught me that the 
latter is the better practice with judicious 
management. The removal by the mower, 
near the surface of the ground,of rapidly grow¬ 
ing crops, like clover, is a severe strain upon 
their organism, which we might reasonably 
expect would seriously affect their vitality, 
and practically, I find this to be the result, 
while the more gradual, and less complete re¬ 
moval by grazing, is much less, if at all in¬ 
jurious. 
In grazing, stock should never be allowed 
upon meadows until the aftermath is suffic¬ 
iently growu to protect the stubble, nor should 
they ever remain late in the season, or crop 
too closely. There must invariably be enough 
aftermath left upon tne ground to protect the 
roots from frost and hold more or less of the 
snows of winter to furnish additional protec¬ 
tion. This is an indispensable condition of 
success, especially upon clay soils, as such 
soils are more readily disintegrated by frosts, 
and the roots of their vegetation are more 
subject to destruction by its action, than upon 
most other soils. By observing these condi¬ 
tions, we may secure much better results by 
grazing than by the use of the mower. The 
amount of damage resulting from mowing, 
or too close grazing, will depend much upon 
the character of the succeeding winter and 
spring, being much greater when the season 
is followed by an open winter than when the 
fields are well covered with snow. 
A large proportion of the mowing lands 
here in Vermont, are what may be called 
“ permanent meadows.” They are seldom 
plowed, aud only manured by the droppings 
of the animals allowed to raDge upon then., 
sometimes even in spring. Iu my own prac¬ 
tice, I cannot afford to hold meadows in that 
condition, even without such irrational graz- 
ing. Nor do I believe that others can, un¬ 
less it be iu exceptional cases, as on river bot¬ 
tom lands or on those too far away to 
admit of the application of stable manure, 
or too rough to admit of renovation by 
plowing. 
buch management ordinarily results in a 
bad mechanical condition. Many meadows 
having soils rich in plaut food, fail to produce 
well, only because they are permanent mead¬ 
ows, and, for this reason, their soils have be¬ 
come hard and impenetrable. This state of 
things should be changed by the use of the 
plow and clover, and the feeding ground of 
their vegetation should be extended down¬ 
ward. We may thus also protect it from 
drought, from the brick-like condition in 
clay soils produced by excessive moisture, 
and from upheaval by frost. Meadows may 
often thus be made even without the applica¬ 
tion of manure, to produce an aftermath 
which will require removal. Neither can I 
afford to hold fields of arable land in perma¬ 
nent pasture. Experience long since taught 
me that, with an intelligent rotation of crops 
and a system of farming by which the plant 
food produced, both in a liquid and solid 
torm is saved, and judiciously applied, old 
pastures may be made to yield not only abun¬ 
dant crops of hay, but as much pasturage 
after the hay crop is removed as they had 
previously produced during the entire season 
The question, then, with regard to pastur¬ 
ing or not pasturing our mowing fields, de¬ 
pends much upon our farm management. 
The farmer who maintains a good mechanical 
condition in his soil, and who feeds his crops 
well, may successfully pasture his meadows 
after mowing. He who sells his hay, or 
wastes his manure, will not ordinarily be 
troubled with an excess of aftermath, and 
should not pasture his meadows. With such 
management the aftermath which is pro¬ 
duced, should be allowed to remain, not only 
to furnish protection to the sward, but also as 
a source of plant food. 
Addison County, Vermont. 
Pont 0 Logical. 
THE CRACKING OF PEARS. 
PROF. BYRON D. HALSTED. 
The disfigurement due to a minute fungus ; 
effects of its attacks upon the leaves and 
fruit \ formation of propagating spores ; 
tentative remedies recommended; preven¬ 
tives. 
The pear crop will be small in some local¬ 
ities this year. In many orchards the leaves 
have already fallen from the trees and the 
fruit, of about half size, is cracked so badly 
as to be entirely worthless, as at Figure 220. 
There are many persons who are satisfied 
to attribute this bad state of things entirely 
to the weather; while others believe that some 
other cause must be sought. A wet season 
doubtless has mucti to do with the prevalence 
of the trouble, but there is a fungus that con¬ 
stantly attends the peculiar premature drop¬ 
ping of the leaves, as witnessed the present sea¬ 
son. To those who have studied into the hab¬ 
its of the fungus and related forms that prey 
upon other trees there is no reason to doubt 
that the prime cause of the loss of the crop is 
a minute fungus. 
This fungus attacks the young leaves and 
fruit and after growing for a time, it makes 
itself known to the careful observer in small, 
discolored spots which often are of a carmine 
red, especially when upon fruit that possesses 
a blush at maturity. These spots are indi¬ 
cated in the engraving of a diseased leaf,Figure 
221, and also in the cut of the badly affected 
fruit. When the leaves of a tree are badly 
infected they curl more or less according to 
their thickness, and drop from the stems leav¬ 
ing the trees leafless. The fruit is not affect¬ 
ed in the same way, and at the present time it 
is not unusual to find trees loaded with fruits 
and without any foliage to feed and protect 
them. To have the leaves fall pre¬ 
maturely would be sufficient in itself 
to injure if not ruin the crop. But 
in this case the same fungus that 
preys upon the leaves also makes a 
home in the green flesh of the fruit 
and therefore with lack of nourish¬ 
ment, due to the defoliation and the 
disorganizing effect of the parasitic 
fungus, there is little wonder that 
the fruit becomes cracked and other¬ 
wise misshapen and dwarfed and 
worthless. 
In the center of each leaf or fruit 
spots beneath the epidermis produce 
a multitude of small, peculiarly- 
shaped bodies, three of which are 
shown in Fig. 222 in different stages 
of development. These spores, when 
mature, find their way to the surface 
of the infested part and are carried 
away by winds and in other ways. 
Upon some badly infested pears upon 
my laboratory table these spores 
have worked their way to the sur¬ 
face and stand as minute white tufts 
all over the dark carmine epider¬ 
mis. As they are continuously formed 
in a shallow cavity the mature ones 
are raised up out of the hole in the 
epidermis by the development of the 
younger ones. They are somewhat 
complex in structure; that is, they 
do not consist of a single smooth sac, 
but of a number grouped around 
each other in a uniform manner 
and are armed with bristles which 
probably assist in their dispersion. 
The matter of spore formation is 
dwelt upon here, for these bodies 
correspond to seeds in higher plants 
and a knowledge of their presence 
in large numbers helps materially 
to explain the rapid spreading of 
the trouble through an orchard. The 
horticulturist and farmer cannot be 
too strongly impressed with the fact 
that the various fungous diseases 
abound in the reproductive bodies 
called spores. Rusts and smuts, for 
example, so far as the external and 
therefore visible parts are concerned, 
are composed almost entirely of 
spores. It is, however, the fine 
threads of the fungus and not 
the spores, that do the bulk of the mis¬ 
chief to the host plant, and this des¬ 
tructive work may be far along before any 
sign of spore formation is to be found. The 
spores are for the farther spread of the fun¬ 
gus during that year or for carrying it over 
until the next season. 
The fungus of the pear causing the leaf- 
blight and cracking of the fruit is rot a new 
enemy, but was discovered many years ago. 
It has borne several botanical names, but the 
one by which it is now known is Entomospor- 
ium maculatum, Lev., a liberal translation 
of which is, a fungus with insect-like spores 
that produces spots. 
What to do to prevent the development of 
this pest is the most important subject. It is 
essential to know the nature of a disease be¬ 
fore rational treatment can be administered; 
but the existence of a disease whose nature is 
well understood, but for which there is no 
remedy, is of course possible. When such is 
the case, preventive measures are the only 
ones. With the pest in question the investi¬ 
gations with fungicides have not gone far 
enough to warrant the recommendation of 
any particular course of procedure. There is 
abundant work in this direction for the ex¬ 
periment stations, and if something effective 
and inexpensive can be found to ward off 
this discouraging blight to the pear industry, 
it will prove of inestimable value to horti¬ 
culturists and all others. 
INFLORESCENCE OF THE CASTOR-OIL PLANT. 
Male and Female Flowers From Nature. Fig. 219. See first page. 
