Plants in their Rdation to Disease. l''"'' 



it, "Every plant, however highly organized, is fundamentally a protoplasmic 

 body, forming a connected whole, which, as it grows on, is externally clothed 

 by a cell membrane, and internally traversed by innumerable transverse 

 and longitudinal walls." We have in this, therefore, a most direct channel 

 through which all parts of the plant are brought into the most active sym- 

 pathy, and a means by which disease, from whatever cause it may arise, can 

 be most rapidly and effectually distributed. 



Last of all, we must direct brief attention to those general principles which 

 should guide us in the treatmeni of disease, and it is hardly necessary to say 

 that the first essential is to obtain a correct diagnosis, otherwise we may con- 

 tinue to grope hopelessly in the dark with only discouragement as a reward. 

 As prevention is always cheaper and better than cure, let all the operations 

 connected with pruning and transplanting be controlled by and executed in 

 accordance with correct principles, bearing in mind that nature has estab- 

 lished certain relations between the wood and the leaf, which, if disturbed, 

 will operate against the health of the plant ; also that a clean cut always heals 

 most readily, w'hile laceration introduces the elements of rapid disorgan- 

 ization. 



As a preliminary in the treatment of any disease, I feel that the mainte- 

 nance of full constitutional vigor is a point which can not be too fully insisted 

 upon, as it is the one of all others which appears to be first overlooked. As 

 shown, this may be accomplished by judicious feeding, with the application of 

 such special elements of food as the case may require. Where this is done 

 at the outset with due regard to the particular case, it will be possible to 

 either effect a direct cure or so bring the disorder under control that other 

 applications will be efficacious ; for we must keep in mind what has long 

 since come to be well recognized, that a vigorous constitution is the most 

 solid basis on which to combat disease, and a natural remedy to which all the 

 artificial applications of man are but aids. It would therefore be useless to 

 continue the destruction of parasites by special treatment until such invig- 

 oration has been accomplished. The results would be of the most superfi- 

 cial and temporary nature, since the conditions, if not the actual cause, 

 which favor the disease, are still present. 



Special applications, such as strong lye or lime, which are designed to act 

 directly upon the parasite, must be used with caution. Their value depends 

 upon their ability to destroy the cellular structure and vitality, and it re- 

 quires no very great degree of penetration to see that the action which is ex- 

 erted upon the parasite must also be exerted upon the tissues of the host, and 

 thus that which is designed as a benefit may and often does do as much harm 

 as, if not more than, the parasite itself— since it strengthens and extends 

 those very conditions favorable to disintegration and parasitic growth. 



