REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 151 



Professor Charles 0. Townsend says : 



WHAT IS A FUNGUS? 



A fungus (i^lural fungi) is a low form of plant. It has 

 neither green stem nor leaves and therefore depends for its 

 food upon other plants or upon animals. Sometimes fungi 

 lives upon dead plants or animals or upon their products, and 

 sometimes they live upon other living plants or upon living 

 animals. They are very numerous and differ greatly among 

 themselves in form, structure and habits of life. All fungi 

 sooner or later produce small, round or oval bodies called 

 spores. These spores under favorable conditions produce new 

 fungi. They are not destroyed by ordinary weather con- 

 ditions and often live over the winter in the fields and 

 orchards. Sometimes they remain alive for several years in 

 the soil and other suitable places, and begin tlieir growtli 

 when the conditions are favorable. Many fungi are very 

 small and can be seen only when greatly magnified. 



WHAT IS THE HOST-PLANT? 



The host-plant is the plant upon wliich, or in which, tlie 

 fungus lives and from which it draws its food supplies. 



WHAT IS A FUNGICIDE? 



A fungicide is any substance which may be used to destroy 

 fungi or their spores, or which will prevent fungi from estab- 

 lishing themselves upon the host-plants. Fungicides may be 

 either solids, liquids, or gases. The most common form of 

 fungicide is liquid ; the kind of fungicide used, however, 

 must depend upon the nature of the fungus, the nature of the 

 host-plant, and the part of the host-plant attacked by the 

 fungus. 



WHY SHOULD WE SPRAY? 



Liquid fungicides are best applied in the form of a fine 

 mist or spray. This is economy, both in the quantity of 

 material used, and in the time required to apply it. The real 

 object in spraying is to prevent the fungous spores that have 

 lodged upon the foliage, branches, or fruit, from germinating 

 and producing fungous growths. Every fungus that grows 



