The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1879-04-09
CIENCE.-N o. vi.
BY PROFESSOR j. H. FOWLER.

Written for Florida Agriculturist
Whether he allow clouds of locusts
to shower down "the judgments of
heaven upon his fields, and blight
and mildew to destroy his crops,
looking only to his gods for deliver
ance, or, rising in the might of his
own faculties, by patient study, learn
the secret forces and ways of beings,
small and large, and, in the accumu-
lated power of superior knowledge,
command the armied troops of ma,
ture to wheel upon themselves and
become their own destroyers*-in
short, by whatever conduct man is
ever exhibiting his advancement
from brute ignorance and impotency
to knowledge and mastery.
AS striking illustration take the
conduct Of our scientists, with refer
ence to the eclipse of the sun in
July last, in contrast with that of
small tribe of sun-worshiping In
dians, as reported to the Denver
Tribune by an eye witness
rffinS~ asse.ss-A<nars lono f~~~sAaiae e
the exact moment when the moon
would approach the SUMS disk and
every phase of its passage across,
with every outline of its shadow
upon the earth, and knowing the
Prof. Huxley says: cit Is. at present
a we'll established fact that ce.tain dis
eases. both of plants and of animals,
which have all the characters of conta-
gIous and infections epidemics, are caused
nv minute organisms. The smut of wheat
is well-knOwn instance of such dis
, ease. and it cannot be doubted that the
grape disease and the potato d!sease fall
now proven and is also true of the diseases
of neacb. plum and pear trees and will
nrnhahlv prove true of die-back in our
orange trees and of " firing" in so many of
our plants.
ImOng animals, insects are wonderfully
liable to the ravages of contagious and in
fectiOus diseases caused by microscopic
fungi.n Speaking of these facts Or. Lor-
ing saws: THE destruction of these
OnTmS. (Or SpOEeSI lOI OAO PAONCuUlOh VI
contagious diseases among men and domes-
tic animals, and the employment OF para
site germs for the destruction of insects
Injurious to vegetation, present to the
practical scientist vast opportunities for
nsef1l exploration, and for actual service
to mankind" He mentions the following
fact as related by Prof. Huxley:
Tn 1858. the sIlkwOrmS of France, were
attacked with q peculiar disease that
threatened the entire destruction of the
whole silk producing industry OF that
country, involving loss of $150,0OO, 600
and bringing poverty to vast population
employed in its manufacture. When all
investigations into the nature OF the dis
ease failed, M. Pasteur, one of the most
distin guished scientists of that country,
disease 1t was caused by microscopic
parasitic, the panhistOphytOn," which
grew and multiplied itself in the silk
worms, and was transmitted from parent
to offspring in the eggs of the latter. Prof.
Huxley says: GUIDED Py ms IN % tneory
ing the disease which has proved perfectly
successful, wherever it is carried out"
Remarking upon this fact Geo. b. LOring.
of Massachusetts,, says: Encouraged by
the success of M. Pasteur what may not
tha apriculturiSt expect from that alliance
between himself and science which has
been established during the last quarter OF
a century" we may
discover and remove the causes of disease
in onr soils and our animals, that we may
: make war on the insects which ravage our
fields and orchards with some more potent
agency shan our hands and implements,
that we NAV rescue our crops from those
maIadies which seem to put limit to their
Very existence ON earth, and that both Wis
ible and microscopic, organisms. will one
daV he DESTROYED by antagonistic organ
isms controlled by man. That this is ex-
pecting too much St science % hS Cannos an sccn ne
mulation of appropriate facts and guided
by accurate experiments"