Summer Meeting. 89 



FUNGOUS DISEASES OF FRUITS. 

 Blighting- Effects of Fungi and Remedies Therefor. 



(By Howard S. Reed Dept. Botany of the University of Missouri.) 



There is no phase of fruit growing which is causing the horticulturist 

 more uneasiness of mind today than that of fruit diseases. He has too 

 often seen orchards carefully planted and diligently cultivated for ten or 

 fifteen years and then the disappointment and loss when the crops were 

 destroyed by some malignant fungous disease. Many men have refrained 

 from planting orchards or fruit plantations because they can see no rea- 

 son why their fruit should escape from diseases which destroy that of 

 their neighbors. In many cases these losses are extremely heavy, as in 

 1900, when the damage to the apple crop in the United States from the 

 bitter rot alone was $10,000,000. 



Every well-informed fruit grower knows, moreover, that fungous 

 diseases are on the increase, and that they are most numerous and most 

 destructive in the regions where fruit trees have been planted for many 

 years. When apples were first grown in Missouri they were practically 

 free from disease, but as time has gone by the scabs, blight, cankers and 

 rots have multiplied. Just as men develop more diseases when they con- 

 gregate in large cities, so our trees and vines contract more diseases when 

 their number is increased. 



The wide-awake, progressive fruit grower is not the man, however, 

 to be disheartened or to give up his business because there are obstacles 

 in his way. He is the man to study the problems and overcome the ob- 

 stacles through his knowledge. In the future, the success of the horti- 

 culturist will be largely a measure of scientific knowledge and the appli- 

 cation of the same to business. Instead of following empirical remedies 

 of uncertain origin, he will use his judgment in applying just what is 

 needed. In that day the compound microscope will be just as essential 

 in his business as the plow or pruning knife. 



The intelligent general does not waste his rifle fire on an enemy 

 hidden in the woods or concealed in bomb-proof caves, but waits until they 

 are out in sight. Neither does the intelligent horticulturist waste his 

 spray when the fungi are in an invulnerable condition. It is. more im- 

 portant to spray at the right time than to spray at all. But in order to 

 spray at the right time we must know the life history of the fungus, its 

 vulnerable and invulnerable points. 



