It is not usual in writing a series of papers to close with what should have been more properly the initiative; but this having happened more through accident than intention I trust it will be overlooked, especially if any satisfaction should be gleaned from the continuance of a subject that is daily attracting the attention of some of the best intellects of the present age, and of as much importance to the nurseryman, horticulturist, gardener, farmer, vinyardist and others interested in land culture of whatever name, as it is to the medical student, who is professionally led to inquire into and study out the various phases of fermentation as it affects the human race in place of that of the vegetable kingdom. It has thus occurred to me that the readers of the Gardeners' Monthly should be occasionally reminded of those infinitesimal beings that float in the air we breathe and have an immediate bearing upon the problems that accompany success or disappointment in the callings above indicated, as well as no small portion of the world at large.

The study of fermentive life is one of primary importance, and yet we are well along in the nineteenth century before discovering any trustworthy knowledge or guidance in this direction. If I were to query any cultivator of the soil concerning his straw heap or manure hill as to what brought either to a desired condition so that it could be successfully applied to his land, a vague answer may be anticipated. Would he suspect that it was a living organism working at it in its own special field of usefulness to accomplish decomposition - a fermentive life action - the same in method that influences the disintegration of a lifeless team, an uprooted tree, and reducing them all to a quality that will tend to revivify the earth ? Surely the land manipulator's occupation would be gone were there no provision in the creative wisdom whereby defunct animal and vegetable matter, or the debris of the world generally, could undergo transmutation in some simple way and be again utilized. In a recently published paper Dr. Wall lucidly defines this point by stating that "some of the ferments induce putrefaction and decay in dead organic substances, thereby reducing the original components of these tissues back to the simpler inorganic compounds, or to the elements, so that they may again be taken up by plant life and again started on the round of organic life; and it is only when these ferments overstep the intended boundary mark and attack living plants and animals, directly or remotely useful to man, or even man himself, that they become injurious".

From the foregoing indications it may be well to demonstrate a few facts as touching the case of those to whom this paper is addressed, and whereby this fermentive life may be known and investigated, remembering first that the decomposing influence mentioned above is from a specific germ which always produces the same effects and distinguished as " bacterium termo;" and in contrast with this let us turn to one of alcoholic notoriety and classified as " torula cerevisiae," which also invariably brings forth the identical result. The activity of this germ depends upon coming in contact with "sugar," which it decomposes, and alcohol is one of the resultant effects. The vinyardist may in this case be selected to illustrate in a practical way the results produced from the presence of various ferments, which are not only attached to the grape on its outer surface; but there are numerous others on the qui vive, and are ready to act their part immediately upon penetrating the skin and expressing the juice.

Pasteur, the great ex-perimentalist, has proved that it is not by the "interior" of the fruit coming in contact with " pure" air that it acquires the power to ferment; but it is the adherent particles or germs on the exterior that produce the fermentive accompaniment, and "turned" wine is traceable to this origin. Seek out the cause of "bitter" wines; again you have the surface of the grape to demonstrate the specialty; as also the so-called acid, sharp, sour, greasy and other wines. Pasteur's remedy for all these difficulties is " heat " whereby the germs are all destroyed, and by this means a perfectly limpid and lasting wine is secured.

The fruit-grower and propagator, like the wine-maker, have many perplexing questions to contend with, and as yet but partly solved, and probably no small part of these originate from fermentive contact. If I seek for a definition of pear, apple or quince blight, we find no one quite positive as to its origin. It certainly would not be unreasonable to attribute it to fermentive life - a leavening of the sap by absorption from without, by means of some parasitic contiguity. At any rate this has been my opinion for years, and so published it in the Fruit Recorders far back as November, 1877, and thus offering a new field for the scientist to work upon and giving an opportunity to the ambitious to attain fame by the study of micro-botany in clearing up the doubts of a very prevalent tree disease.

The gardener, of course, has difficulties in germ life, and especially in unhealthy seasons; but, so far as many vegetables are concerned the process of cooking destroys all vitality; while those that are consumed uncooked usually undergo a thorough ablution in water, and in this way removing any predominating germ influence upon the consumer. It is in the decomposition of vegetables from causes previously mentioned that the vegetarian need be cautioned, and not when plucked fresh from the field or garden of the grower.

The farmer may have his attention called, independent of germ influence upon the straw stack, to several important items with which he is largely interested. Milk is a prominent one, and is influenced in many ways by germ ferments, and there are at least a dozen organisms changing the condition of milk. One will gelatinize or coagulate milk, another absorb the sugar of milk and convert it into lactic acid, and these in turn can be changed by impregnating with other germs. Milk is also often turned blue by a special ferment, and when once this blue visitor appears, it is difficult to extirpate it. The cholera bacillus is also at home and thrives in milk, but can be readily destroyed by heat. Cider and vinegar are also affected with surrounding germ influence, and may be good or bad according to circumstances. Pasteur has demonstrated also the fact that flies influence the spreading of certain ferments, and are to be found in all places where vegetable matter is turning sour, and with their feet and probosces transport the seed by the million.

He says : " In vinegar, in wine or suspended air, everywhere around us, in our towns, in our houses, there exists the little plant, mycoderma aceti;" and adds that it is only necessary to put wine or vinegar into a warm place and the flies at once appear and distribute the seed ad infinitum.

That flies have a legitimate errand to perform in many ways will not be disputed; yet under certain well defined laws they can accomplish much mischief, when having free access to fermentable matter, by spreading disease. The foliage of trees suffers materially from this cause, by implanting a foreign nucleus upon its surface, which in time permeates the whole texture of a leaf to its destruction, and prematurely influencing the proper ripening of the fruit. This is especially noticeable among plum and peach foliage.

In conclusion I would ask: What is human digestion but a series of ferments, healthful or otherwise, and characterized by surrounding conditions, and in this way establishing a continuity of fermentive influence, link by link, from the lowest animal or vegetable organism to that of man, the noblest work of the Creation, and opening up a field of study of great interest and worthy of continual investigation ?

59 Gregory Street, Rochester, N. Y.

[We are glad to have these very suggestive and profitable themes kept before our readers. On the solution of many of these problems innumerable practices of immense concern to the human race depend. At the same time it must be remembered that immense losses occur to communities from practicing on half-learned problems. By way of illustration : The city of Philadelphia has a hospital for contagious diseases. The physician in attendance had $1500 a year. The " Baccilians " of the " Comma" persuasion so thoroughly frightened the city, that his salary last January was raised to $2000, because he would have his hands full of cholera patients. Here we are on the first of August not only without cholera, but with one of the healthiest seasons known for a long time; so much so, that at no time has this hard-worked physician had more than six patients in the hospital at one time. Worse than all, it has recently been discovered that the "Comma Bacillus," in the germ state, is always present here. It has not to be introduced. We take it in with every breath, - and it requires some pecular condition of the atmosphere or of the human system to make it sprout into virulence. In its usual state of vital power the digestive or pulmonary system can take in and destroy all these ferment fungi.

No one need dread them in the least. We may drink them, or we may eat them, or inhale them; vegetarians, flesh eaters, wine or water drinkers; and they will not harm us, unless vital power is too weak to kill them. The ferment fungus - yeast - will worry the wet flour considerably in bread making, because the flour is no longer a living thing. It would have hard work to excite the growing grain. In all these chemical discussions, the sustaining and protective power of life is overlooked. There is a physiological as well as chemical side to all these questions. - Ed. G. M].