Transcription

[Page 108]

I was deeply grieved as it was to learn from you that the prospects of all the Tenant Farmers in your District were again blighted but I should have been really been [indecipherable] had you written in any other strain on this painful subject than you did in such [indecipherable] in fact as I fear I should have written.  It is most sad.  Surely this Rust Fungus which seems to be perennial with you is another Parasite altogether from that which used to affect the wheat crops in my time, in unusually warm & damp Springs.  It must have been sown with the seed & the cure must be sought for in proper dressing.  I will speak to Hooker on this subject & see if he can refer me to any proper (living) authority on the subject.  The Rust I recollect in Sir Joseph Banks' time was referred to the influence of Barberry bushes!!! but I daresay [indecipherable] Fungology has [indecipherable] will in late years some light has been thrown on the history of this particular Parasite and now having promised this let me ask you to do something for me, and there is nothing less than to give me a list of all the Exotic 

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