2 PLANT DISEASES 



in combating plant diseases ; in fact, if preventive measures 

 were intelligently, rigorously, and persistently carried out, 

 based on knowledge corroborated by repeated experiments, 

 it might safely be predicted that the frequent wholesale 

 destruction experienced at the present day would not be 

 repeated. 



III. Cures. — Sometimes the attempt at effecting a cure 

 is a success ; frequently not. To the practical man, who 

 naturally hopes for a cure at every stage of a disease, the 

 result is generally disappointing. In the majority of 

 instances where an annual plant is attacked, cure is practi- 

 cally impossible, and in the case of perennials, the prospect 

 of a profitable crop for that year is slight. In such in- 

 stances, however, the disease can be arrested in its course, 

 and a recurrence prevented. 



Many people are apt to ridicule and throw discredit on 

 subjects with which they are not familiar, and possibly 

 some may consider that the items of knowledge indicated 

 above as being essential to a thorough grasp of the subject 

 can lead to no good. To those with the mind thus con- 

 stituted we fully agree that the attempt would result in no 

 good : ' A man convinced against his will, is of the same 

 opinion still.' On the other hand, the mind that can 

 grasp the fact that a certain amount of knowledge is 

 essential to the successful issue of any undertaking, will, 

 it is confidently hoped, not encounter any great difificulty 

 in acquiring a sound knowledge of the broad outlines of 

 the subject. The experience of many of the most success- 

 ful horticulturalists and others testifies that it well repays 

 the time devoted to the study. 



The following remarks, written more than half a century 

 ago by the pioneer of Vegetable Pathology, so far as the 



