531 
TOPICS OF INTEREST TO FRUIT-GROWERS. 
berries from mildew, were probably owing to this cause : ITis 
garden was nearly on a level with Lake Michigan, and the soil 
six inches below the surface was always moist. 
It may be advisable here to state, that it is not advisable to 
use wood chips for mulching. .Examine a heap of rotting 
chips in summer, and you will find them covered by a net work 
of white filaments, the spawn of some fungus. The Rev. M. 
J. Berkly, of England, discovered last year, that the spawn of 
a fungus originating on decaying wood, in the soil had 
the power of fastening upon and destroying the roots of 
living plants ; since then, many cases have been referred to 
him of grape vines, fruit trees, and flowering shrubs which had 
died in a mysterious manner, without any apparent cause, and 
in several cases the roots were found to be attacked and de¬ 
stroyed by fungi. 
The injury done to the crops of the farmer and gardener, by 
this tribe of plants is enormous. Mildew renders the growing 
of hops in Europe little better than a gambling speculation. 
How great has been the loss sustained in the wine producing 
countries of Europe by an attack of mildew on the grape. 
How much misery has been produced, how much food destroy¬ 
ed, and labor rendered vain by the mildew of the potatoe ? and 
who can form any notion of the loss annually sustained by at¬ 
tacks of smut, rust, and mildew on grain crops alone. I know 
of no branch of natural science which seems as likely at some 
future day, to render such important service to the cultivator, 
as a thorough, experimental knowledge of the habits of these 
plants. What are the conditions that favor their growth, and 
contribute to their power ; and what remedies can be devised, 
what preceutions taken, to guard our crops from their attacks ? 
Sublimed sulphur, dusted on the leaves of the hop and grape¬ 
vine, when these plants are first attacked, is found to be an ef¬ 
ficient remedy; yet it produced no effect on the mildew of some 
other plants to which it was applied. We may prevent smut in 
wheat, by steeping the seed in a solution of the sulphate of 
copper, but this affords no protection against an attack of rust 
or mildew. 
