There are many species, some harmless, others very injurious. Each specimen is a single cell, with two coverings, often supplied with two lashes which cause its motion. Some, and perhaps all, produce spores.

Without bacteria fresh meat would not decay, vegetables would keep without rotting till dried up. Bacteria help to form nitrates in the soil for aiding the growth of crops. They infest insects at certain times, causing immense destruction, as was recently the case with the chintz bug and the cabbage butterfly.

The fungi are parasites and scavengers, subsisting on other plants, or on what other plants have built up. There are probably 500 species of parasitic fungi in Michigan injurious to plants. To fight these with intelligence and success we need to know their habits. In many cases no remedies have yet been found.

We have seen that a remedy for one thing may be utterly worthless for another. As a rule the extensive cultivation of any one crop as a specialty, year after year, is risky, and more likely sooner or later to be destroyed by insects or fungi. In certain places this has been true of wheat, asparagus, cabbage, lettuce, onions, grapes, pears, peaches.' A rotation or a mixture is better or less dangerous. As a partial remedy strive to keep plants healthy by making the soil and moisture favorable.

For a start, a fungus must have moisture. This accounts for the fact that grape rot is kept off by putting a paper sack over each cluster when young. The moisture is thus kept off the berries and a spore cannot germinate without moisture. Experiments have shown the folly, says Professor Burrill, of fumigations, medications of sap or roots to kill fungi; that washing the grain of seed wheat in blue vitriol will prevent the growth of bunt (or smut) in the kernels, but as a remedy for rust it is no more effectual than smoking cigars to cure corns on the feet. In fighting a fungus it may help us to know all the kinds of plants upon which it lives.

The entomologist was at one time thought to be a crank, but now his advice is sought as readily as that of the skilled physician. Our ancestors put a horse. shoe in cream to drive away the witches, and we laugh at their folly. In early days, when several persons of a family died with typhoid fever, it was spoken of as a mysterious visitation of Divine Providence. Now in such cases, we examine the decaying vegetables in the damp cellar, or the water in the well, and very likely find the cause of the trouble. Rust and smut in our cereals sometimes take half the crop. Grape rot takes all the berries and men dig up the vines. Yellows in the peach at St. Joseph, destroy the trees and men give up a business once profitable. People are too likely to consider that in such cases there are no remedies. I am not sure of this. We need the strong light of modern science thrown directly into all these dark mysteries. See what Pasteur has done, to say nothing of many others! The loss to farmers and horticulturists on account of fungi are as great as those caused by injurious insects, and perhaps may be as readily controlled or prevented. Here is a grand work for hundreds of our ablest observers and experimenters. Who will supply the facilities and set them to work?

FLOWER CULTURE.

BY MRS. R. D. PALMER.

(Read at the Manchester Institute.)

Why should we cultivate flowers? How are we benefited by doing so? It gives man more refinement and taste, and adds grace to his manliness. It gives woman rest from the daily cares which are apt to perplex, and makes her more amiable. It gives the young a healthful exercise of both mind and body, and teaches them purity, and it gives all a love for the beautiful. A home without flowers is something like a home without children, and a home without either can hardly be called a home. Flowers are something like children, it pays to give them a careful cultivation, it makes them all the more bright and lovely. What is more attractive than a well kept lawn, with beautiful flowers, shrubs and shade trees? But do not get the trees so near the house that they will shut out the sunshine, for we, like the flowers, need the light of the sun to make us strong and beautiful. It is often urged that farmers should cultivate flowers, but most of our farmers are so busy, that if they do have flowers the most of the work and care will have to come from the wife and children.

We become weary in almost all our occupations and amusements, but who has ever heard any one say they were tired of flowers? Most children have a love for the beautiful, and are easily interested in floriculture. We want something that will give girls out-door exercise. They need something that will give muscle as well as brain, both mental and physical vigor, and there is nothing that will give both better than flower culture. The work to care for them is nothing, it is mere recreation, done at odd moments when one needs a little fresh air.

How often have we been led to wish the weeds would not grow. But if they did not sometimes compel us to cultivate in order to save the flowers, we would neglect that stirring of the soil which the plants need for healthy growth. Without a strong plant, we cannot expect beautiful blossoms.

There has been great improvement in floriculture in the last forty years. When I think about the pansies I had when a child, although they looked very beautiful to me then, yet they were not half as large as now, nor of as many colors.

If you can care for but a few plants, I would say cultivate the pansy for one. I sow my pansy seed twice in a year, in the spring for fall blooming and in the fall for spring blossoms. In the spring when the cold storms are over, I reset them in a deep, mellow soil; they want plenty of water and a place that is partially shaded, and the blossoms from such plants will be larger than from those exhausted from fall blooming. I sow forty or fifty different varieties of annuals every season. For bouquets, we want beauty and fragrance combined. Among the most choice are verbenas, candytuft, carnation, heliotrope, pink, mignonette, sweet alyssum, petunia, etc. There are others that are not as fragrant, but are very brilliant and beautiful, as the aster, adonis, calliopsis, forget-me-not, larkspur, phlox, salpiglossis, zinnia, and others. If you want your plants to bloom profusely, you must pick off the blossoms and not let them go to seed, but I think there is no place that flowers look more beautiful than on the parent stem. If we wish to have flowers from early spring until frost cuts them in the fall, we must have something besides annuals.

Our flowering plants include bulbs, annuals, biennials, and herbaceous perennials. Annuals bloom the first season from seed, and after ripening, the plant dies. Biennials usually die after flowering, which they do the second season after sowing. Herbaceous perennials are those that bloom the second year from seed, the plants dying down every autumn and starting again in the spring. There are also imperfect perennials, as dianthus and sweet william, which must be divided and reset to insure continuance and healthy growth. Our earliest spring blossoms are the pansy, crocus and daisy, then come 'the hyacinth, narcissus, and tulip, and then all the flowering shrubs and perennials begin to fill the air with their perfume. It is a good plan to give herbaceous plants a little extra protection through the winter. Although they will survive our winters, they will bloom much better if given an extra coat of something that will act as a fertilizer-such as dead leaves from the woods, mixed with well rotted compost from the barn yard. We should not be in too great haste to plant our tender bulbs in the spring. Better wait until the ground gets warm, then they will start into rapid growth with good sound roots, and will bloom much sooner than if planted too early. The gladiolus should be planted eight inches below the surface, and covered with rich soil; it will multiply better than if planted shallow. Dahlias need very rich soil; they are not easily harmed by over fertilizing. Suds from the wash makes a good application, but plants should not be watered during the heat of the day.

No spot in the yard need be bare or uninviting. Where it is so shaded. that no grass will grow, our native ferns will flourish, and with a little care, several varieties can be obtained; it will only cost the trouble of looking them up. They can be found on almost any of our farms that have low land; the maiden-hair with its jet black, glossy stems and crescent of leaflets, and the delicate lady fern, the sensitive fern which blackens at the first frost, and the ostrich fern, whose long, slender fronds, growing in clumps, are very graceful and ornamental.

A neatly kept lawn, with fine shade trees, will add much to the value of a farm; strangers will be attracted to it, and its beauty will give pleasure to all who behold it.

STRAWBERRY CULTURE.

BY E. C. BILLINGHURST.

(Read at the Albion Institute.)

The object of this article will be not so much to show how to grow berries for market, as how each family may supply their table through four or five weeks of each year, besides canning as many as they wish of this most delicious fruit; though the principles are the same for field as for garden culture.

Almost any good soil will do except an old heavily manured garden, as it will produce more vines than fruit.

The strawberry delights in a deep, moist soil, and will thrive in land that is too wet for the cereals. But any soil that will. grow corn and potatoes will, with proper care, grow strawberries as well.

Manure should be as concentrated as possible, well rotted and thoroughly mixed with the soil.

In soils well provided with vegetable mould ashes would perhaps be more useful than barn-yard manure, and in any case ashes are of great benefit to strawberries, as they need much potash, and this is most cheaply obtained in wood ashes. Apply them broadcast after plowing and work into the soil with the harrow and cultivator. Do not spread them with the thumb and finger, but with the shovel, so as to give a liberal application. If unleached ashes are not to be had, use leached ashes, as they still contain about one-fifth of their potash and may be applied very heavily.

VARIETIES.

Some varieties contain only the pistils or female part of the blossom, and will not bear unless set near some perfect flowered variety. These are called pistillates. Others contain both pistils, the female part, and stamens, the male part of the flower, and so will bear when set alone. These are called staminates, or more properly hermaphrodite, or perfect flowered plants. A good plan, in setting pistillates, is to set a perfect flowered variety in every fourth or fifth row. A neglect of this caution often means the loss of a crop. There are a great many varieties in cultivation; and new ones are being originated every year from seed. The plants obtained from the runners are always the same as the mother plant, but by planting the seed new varieties are obtained. For home use or even for market, three varieties, at the most, are enough to cultivate; and I would name in the order of their merit the Manchester, the Crescent and the Wilson, as being, if not the best, at least good enough. Other varieties have proved good in certain localities, but these three have given good satisfaction in a large extent of territory, and on a great variety of soils. The Crescent is a very early berry, ripening, under favorable circumstances, in this latitude, from the seventh to the tenth of June. It is bright red in color, medium size, of fair flavor, and very prolific. It is a pistillate. The Wilson, so well known as a prolific bearer, begins to ripen its berries a few days later than the Crescent and fills in the middle of the season. On account of its firmness, it is still considered the best berry grown for shipping long distances. Nearly all the berries shipped into this market the past season were of this variety. The Wilson is a perfect flowered berry, and is one of the best to set along side of such pistillate varieties as Crescent and Manchester to fertilize their blossoms.

The Manchester is a very large berry, and holds its size even to the last picking. The color and flavor are good, and it is extremely prolific, nearly every blossom perfecting a good sized berry. On my grounds, the past season, where eleven varieties were growing side by side, the Manchester took the lead in the number of quarts produced to the row, besides bringing a better price in the market than any other variety. This is a late berry-beginning to ripen a few days later than the Wilson, and continuing to give nice large berries till the fifteenth or twentieth of July. Both this and the Crescent have strong growing vines, which put out a large number of runners. Whatever varieties you choose to plant, don't take vines out of an old, run-out bed that has borne one or two crops. Only vines of the prece ding year's growth should be used. Better pay a good price for good vines well grown, than go into some neighbor's old, run-out patch, and get them for nothing.

Plow deeply, at least 8 or 9 inches.

Plant in long rows so as to use horse cultivation. After thoroughly pulverizing the ground mark out in rows three feet apart each way and set a plant at each crossing.

Keep the roots of your plants from the sun so as not to let them dry out, and after setting fill in with moist earth and press firmly around the roots, leaving the crown of the plant even with the surface of the ground.

If the weather is dry the roots of the plant may be dipped in a pail of water before setting.

The best time for this work is early spring, as soon as the ground will work well. If well set at that time not one per cent will fail.

After setting, cultivate as you would corn, every week or ten days till midsummer, after which cultivate only the long way, letting the runners take root in the row the other way, so as to form a matted row.

Cultivate and hoe as much as may be necessary to keep the bed clean of weeds. Keep the ground level.

Eighty bushels of berries to the acre will pay for a good deal of hard work. It is better that the vines should not bear any the first year, so that they may make a better growth for the main crop the next year.

After the ground freezes in the fall cover the vines with some coarse mulch as a winter protection. This should be raked off after the ground is done freezing in the spring, and then no cultivation is necessary till the crop is harvested, after which the ground should be kept clean again until fall.

Give the ground another dressing of manure and work it in with the cultivator.

It is from August to November that the plants make the growth necessary to produce a full crop the following season, so that neglect then will surely lessen the crop.

After bearing two crops the bed should be plowed up and reset. A new bed, set one year after the first, will then be in bearing. So set a new bed each year, leaving it to bear two years. In this way you will have, after the first year, two beds in bearing, one of them two years old and the other one year. The two-year-old bed will ripen berries a few days earlier in the season than the other; but the one-year-old bed will give nicer, larger berries, and hold out later, thus prolonging the season. Another way to prolong the season is to take the mulch off from the early Crescent soon as the ground is done freezing, but leave it on the later Manchester a week longer, thus putting them back a little, while advancing the Crescent. In this way you can have a continual supply of fresh berries for four or even five weeks in the season.

WHAT CAN WOMEN DO WITH SMALL FRUITS ?

BY MRS. J. G. AVERILL.

[Read at the Paw Paw Institute.]

Material for a dozen papers is readily called to mind by the subject of small fruit culture, which actually has no limit; but the assignment to me of one special department of it as a topic, allows me to leave the choice and preparation of land, selection and setting of plants, methods of cultivation, merits and demerits of noted varieties of all sorts of fruit, to the gentlemen who so often and so ably discuss them, and to address especially the sisters of the institute.

As woman's connection with this industry has been somewhat limited, perhaps I can be quite as useful and original in this way.

My friends in this vicinity will bear witness to my practical knowledge of the