WINTER MEETING. 205 



season ; but the unanimous testimony of all the stations that have experimented in 

 this direction is that spraying, if done early and often enough, is not only a great 

 preventive of rot, but is an entirely practical and profitable operation. 



Scribner, of Tennessee, and Greene, of Minnesota, advise the bagging of 

 grapes where only a few vines are grown, as a half acre or less. Bags put on as 

 soon as the flowers are fertilized will insure a full crop, free from blemish by dis- 

 ease, bird, insect or dirt. 



Wherever reported, the second and third years' treatment was found more 

 eflfective than the first. Thus, the Tennessee Station reports : 



First year— Treated vines lost about one-third of what would have been a full 

 crop. Untreated vines lost practically all of what would have been a full crop. 



Second year— Treated vines lost none : 10 to 25 per cent, according to variety. 



The Delaware Station reports as follows: "In 1888 Mr. Lee Anthony's vine- 

 yard yielded no revenue, owing to attacks of black rot. In 1889 this disease was 

 controled by Bordeaux mixture, and something more than one-fourth of a crop of 

 merchantable grapes was thereby saved. In 1890 the same vineyard was again 

 protected against the black-rot spores ; aided by a favorable season, this fungicide 

 allowed said vineyard to give a large and exceedingly profitable yield of grapes." 

 —Bui. No. 10. 



Of downy mildew, or brown rot, which is quite as destructive as black rot in 

 some localities, and submits to the same treatment, the Ohio Station reports, 

 among other successes: " Sprayed vifies on Kelly's Island averaged between two 

 and a half and three tons per acre ; unsprayed vines not to exceed a ton, and on 

 many as low as half a ton. Loss of fruit from what set on sprayed vines would 

 not exceed five per cent. Foliage on sprayed vines is much better, holding onto 

 the vine longer, and thus ripening the wood so as to withstand a greater amount of 

 cold. 



At the Missouri Station, Professor Clark reported, as the result of spraying in 

 1889, after the crop of '88 had been completely destroyed by fungus, that "on vines 

 sprayed but once (all were sprayed), fully four-fifths of the fruit rotted, except 

 Goethe, of which not more than half was poor, while on vines that were sprayed 

 regularly, 75 per cent of the fruit was sound." 



Other diseases of the grape besidos those referred to are being studied, and it 

 is found that the three most common fungicides, Bordeaux mixture, ammoniacal 

 solution of carbonate of copper, and Eau Celeste, are more or )ess eflFective against 

 them all. 



ROTS AND SCABS OF ORCHARD FRUITS. 



These diseases are caused by several difl'erent species of parasitic plants, more 

 or less similar in habit and methods of reproduction, and submitting to the same 

 remedies, of which the active agent in all is copper. 



The work of the Experiment stations with these diseases has been very exten- 

 sive, particularly in those states in which the orchard industries are large and well 

 established. Among the most valuable bulletins on the rots and scabs maybe 

 mentioned New Jersey, No. 91, issued in 1892, on quince diseases; Ohio, No. 9, 

 Vol. 4, 1891, and No. 28, 1893, on apple scab; Delaware, Nos. 15 and 19, 1892, on 

 peach rot ; Vermont, No. 28, 1892, apple and pear scab ; Virginia, No. 17, 1892, on 

 scab and rot ; Cornell, N. Y. , No. 48, 1892, on apple scab ; Massachusetts, Nos. 11 

 and 17, on fungicides and insecticides, combined ; Kentucky, No. 44, on rot and scab 

 of apple. A most valuable document, in which a great variety of plant diseases is 

 discussed, is the report of the Botanical Department of the New Jersey Station for 

 1892. 



