at least that it is a very obscure disease, and that it is of very obscure origin, and that many theories that are propounded in reference to what causes it and its remedies, do not hold good long; but Thomas Mahon, who is editor of the Gardener's Monthly, of Philadelphia, and who is high authority on all such matters, says absolutely that a wash of a weak solution of potash will prevent the blight.

Mr. Jordan - Why will not strong lye mixed with whitewash have the same effect?

Mr. Wood-It strikes me that while the blight appears in the leaves and the branches, putting a wash on the body of the tree would be like putting a wash on your foot for a sore finger. I should think the thing would be to prepare a pump or a sprinkler and to throw the wash up on the trees, and let it fall on the leaves, and if this lime and other material applied to the body should be effectual, how does it reach the leaves? If it should be an emanation rising up through the tree, a little application on the top of the tree would certainly be good. I think we ordinarily know pretty near when this blight sets in. There is a certain murkiness of the air that makes us think of blight before it

comes.

Mr. Jordan It generally follows these muggy thunderstorms, and consequently the Germans often say it is struck by lightning.

Mr. Wood I noticed the expression was used, “a weak solution of potash." It might be that a little of the solution sent over your trees would be cheaper and more quickly and easily done, and would accomplish the thing directly, while your application to the bodies is quite remote from the seat of the disease.

Mr. Jordan - The eating of the pudding is generally the test of the thing; and it is worth while for every man who is building an orchard to whitewash his trees for two reasons, aside from the blight. First, to keep the borers out. If you whitewash your trees thoroughly, letting the whitewash fill the crevice that is always between the tree and the ground, on account of the wind pressing your tree, you will never be troubled with the root borer,

or the borer in the body or crotches. If you whitewash about the first of June, that is when they lay their eggs, and they will not deposit them on a whitewashed place. Secondly, it makes the trees more vigorous, and preventing the blight is a great ob. ject. In the southern part of Minnesota they have suffered much from the blight.

Mr. Tuthill-This matter of blight has been before the world for a great many years. It appears sometimes to pass over twenty or thirty or forty years, and there is no one who has ever found any remedy that they could justly claim was a remedy. It is well enough to try this. I talked with Mr. Barry, of western New York, a few years ago, and with John J. Thomas and Mr. Smith, of Syracuse, and Mr. Dunn. Several of us talked together about this matter of blight, and they all agreed it was not a thing they knew anything about. They had found no sure remedies. It came and went. Now as to the idea that it comes at the times when we have great heat. I have known blight in some of our coldest summers. Some of our worst seasons of blight have been

very cold summers. It is not confined to the fruit trees. We see it in the young oaks in the groves, young, thrifty, healthy trees, and it destroys them. It is more fatal to the oak than to any other tree. I would not discourage the use of this remedy;

it

may be good, but still the whitewashing of the trees is, I think, a more simple remedy, and one that can be more readily applied, and come into common use a great deal more easily than washing with lye or whitewash. I believe that the application of an alkali to the tree is beneficial, and we can apply that to the whole tree, branches, twigs, and every part of it, and we can do that readily, and it is better than to apply anything to the trunk merely. The scattering of dry ashes when the trees are damp and before the leaves appear, is a complete washing. It does not do the tree any particular good to put soap on it. That is, the oil or grease in the soap is not what we are after. It is the alkali, the ashes; and if put on in the way I suggest, it will stick to the tree through the summer, and even the rains will not wash it off, and it forms a coating. It is necessary to put it on the tree when there is not much air in circulation, and when you can throw it onto

opposite sides of the tree. It will be a complete washing not only of the body but of all the small twigs; and it is an effectual remedy against the bark-worm. I have seen trees that were badly infested with bark-worm completely cleaned out by using ashes in this manner. I think that washing the bodies and limbs of trees may be good, but I believe it is better to wash the whole tree, and you can do that effectually by sprinkling ashes on the tree when it is damp.

Mr. Adams-Do you know anything about the application of linseed oil? I have seen, I cannot tell how many recommendations of it for the prevention of blight.

Mr. Tuthill-If pure linseed oil was used on the tree, either on the body or the limbs, I calculate that it would stop the circulation. If it penetrates through the bark, as it undoubtedly would, it would prevent the circulation of the sap, and, I should think, would injure the tree. I knew a gentleman once who had his plum trees badly injured, and he asked his neighbor what he had done for his (they were being destroyed by something), and he said he used kerosene oil. He applied the kerosene oil to his trees and it killed them. Afterwards he accosted his neighbor and said, 'Why, I used that oil and it killed my trees." "Well," said the

other, "so it did mine!"

Mr. Jordan I find that people are apt to fall into something they have heard recommended. I have not been entirely free from that myself. At our horticultural meeting, a couple of years ago, somebody recommended painting fruit trees with chemical paint, such as we use for the roofs of our houses and barns, to keep rabbits off. It is a great deal better on roofs than it is on fruit trees. I killed four or five hundred Wealthy trees, by painting them. It taught me a lesson, so I thought I would put my linseed oil away, for it penetrates the Wealthy. The Transcendent it does not injure, but it kills the Wealthy. Some of these gentlemen who are skeptical in regard to the use of sulphur for the blight, let them about the first of June thoroughly whitewash their trees with lime and sulphur and try it thoroughly. I heard one man say he knew it would not keep the blight away, for he had tried it. I asked him when he whitewashed. He said

"In the fall;" and I said, "Of course it would not if you put it on in the fall; but if you put it on in the spring, then tell us next year what your experience is."

Mr. Philips - I want to talk a little about the blight. I presume I know as little about the blight as anybody else, and just as much, too. Brother Wood cannot see where the application comes in of a poultice to the foot for the cure of a sore finger, or an application on the trunk of a tree to cure the blight. Now my experience is, that anything you can do to retard the growth of the tree, retards the blight. A tree that is a free grower is the soonest to blight. Transcendents are charged with spreading the blight the most. If you can plant a Transcendent in one place, and give it thorough cultivation, so that it will grow thriftily, and put another somewhere else, and sod the ground around it, this last tree will not show a particle of blight in five years, while the other will.

A member- Nor any fruit.

Mr. Philips - Yes, it will. There are men who claim that if you whitewash a tree, paint it, or put anything on the bark of it, you thus injure the circulation and retard the growth, and that the bark should be washed clean, and have a chance to grow. My impression is, that if you daub this whitewash on thick you may possibly retard the circulation, and so stop the blight. Why is it that a tree growing in the sod does not blight, and another one growing a rod from it does? They get the same atmosphere, the same circulation of air and the same summer showers, and how you account for it? So with this matter of the whitewash. I can account for its preventing the blight in no other way than that it retards the growth of the tree; but how it does it I don't know.

do

Mr. Jordan I would say that the whitewash does not retard the growth of the trees. I have been whitewashing mine for eight years, and a more healthy orchard cannot be found. One gentleman who had whitewashed his trees, told me it made them grow faster.

Prof. Daniells-It has been said that the Persian Insect Powder is a poison. It is not a poison to anything but flies. It is

the flower of a particular species of plant that is pulverized. I mention this that no one may be prevented from using a most excellent remedy for flies. There is no danger whatever in its use. It is made from the petals of a flower ground very fine. flower grows in Palmatia.

This

QUESTION PROPOSED BY A. D. M'DONELL, OF VERONA COUNTY. "How shall we get rid of our straw with the most profit?"

Sec. Bryant-I would say that I do not know this gentleman, but he wrote me a letter asking to have this question proposed. To open the subject I will state how I get rid of mine. I don't raise any.

Hon. M. Anderson, of Cross Plains - The greatest trouble with me is to get enough. When I first came to Wisconsin, some of the farmers told me that they got rid of all their straw by burning it. I told them I would be very glad to get a straw pile. I could not get enough. I had about a hundred acres of very heavy straw this year, and when I was home the other day, I found I would have to get more before spring. I not only use all I can raise on the place, but frequently I have to buy. The farmers are getting wiser now and don't want to sell it. I can use up all I can raise on my farm, especially in a winter like this, and two years ago I had to buy a great deal. There are several ways of using it. When I am sowing winter wheat, I like to spread it all over the crop in the field. I thinks it helps to keep the snow on, especially in a country where the snow is liable to drift. I also use it for bedding for the cattle, and for sheds and so forth. The best way I can use it, is to bring it into my stables and work 1 up into manure. I take it out as often as once a week. If you have cattle stables, it will not do any hurt if it stands there a month; you will find a very fine quality of manure at the end of that time. The question seems to me a very simple one. I think there is no difficulty in using the straw now. There was years ago. Either make it into manure or spread it over the fields. I would have no hesitation in putting it thinly over wheat fields.

Mr. MortonI think I have had some little experience in find