FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 29 



air and lodge on the fruit or foliage and in time germinate, sending 

 mycelium or rootlets into the tissue of the fruit or foliage. After the 

 mycelium enters the leaf we can spray as much as we please and it will 

 do not good. The only way to treat a fungus is to have the spray on 

 the fruit or on the foliage before that little sport or seed germinates. 

 So when the fruit grower writes to us and tells us that his cherry trees 

 are dropping their foliage — "What can he do?" we must answer that he 

 cannot do anything. He might spray and prevent the disease from 

 spreading, but the damage is already done and the disease is working 

 all through the tissue and it cannot be reached by any spray that can 

 be put on. He should have begun thirty days before. So with all 

 fungus diseases, we can control them, we can prevent them, but we can- 

 not cure them after they get inside of the plant tissue. If you have the 

 right conception of these things you will use the right spray at the 

 right time. Our bulletins tell you all about this. You should know, 

 therefore, as much as you can about the life history of these pests — 

 how it is the apple fungus grows? What part of the tree does it at 

 tack? And other questions of similar import. 



In regard to making a mixture it is well to know a good mixture from 

 a bad one. It is not difficult to use lime and sulphur that we have 

 simply to dilute in water, but when you come to make a Bordeaux 

 mixture and some of those other sprays, it is not so easy. Bordeaux 

 mixture is not simply the taking of lime and copper sulphate and slap- 

 ping them together; they should be put together in such a way that 

 they make as fine a mechanical mixture as possible. Get the bulletins 

 on spraying and study the proper method of making these sprays. 



In regard to the winter protection of trees I have little to say. If 

 you have grown your trees properly during the summer, that is, in such 

 a way that you have obtained a strong, well ripened growth, you have 

 done much to prepare your trees for the winter. That is the most im- 

 portant of all methods of preparing the tree for winter. 



Another thing we should do is to protect the tree from its outside 

 enemies. It is a very common thing to see a young orchard planted and 

 go into winter quarters in excellent shape, only to be girdled by mice 

 and stripped by rabbits during the winter. The young trees with green 

 succulent bark seem to have a special attraction for rabbits and mice. 

 If the orchard is well cultivated and happens to be near brush land you 

 will be troubled more or less with rabbits. To insure your trees against 

 this trouble it is advisable to protect them with some kind of tree 

 guard. We have on exhibition at the apple show several devices for this 

 purpose; one is common tar paper, easily obtained, cheap and very 

 effective. Cut the tar paper in strips as long as you wish, wrap them 

 around the trunk and tie together. Again we have wooden veneer strips 

 which are slats of wood made for the purpose which may be soaked in 

 water so that they can be bound around the tree and fastened. Some 

 use coarse screen wire, of about one-half inch mesh for this purpose and 

 it has been found an excellent prevention of mice and rabbits. Some- 

 times the trees are banked up with soil and this prevents injury from 

 mice. 



Perhaps this is enough to be said of this topic, but if there are any 

 questions you would like to ask, I will be glad to answer them as far 

 as possible. 



