396 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



adhering and carefully laid in five pound to eight pound baskets ; in all 

 cases picking the small and inferior fruit by itself, to be marketed as 

 second class. And while the varieties designed for preserving need 

 not be so carefully packed, equal care should be bestowed in sorting, 

 that no imperfect fruit be packed in packages denominated tirst-class; 

 in doing which, you will find some one ready to purchase your fruit at 

 its fair value, giving you fair compensation for all your labor and care, 

 and you, in conclusion, abundantly satisfied that well-grown plums 

 shipped in cleanj neat packages, at the proper time and to the proper 

 markets, are a crop not to be despised. — 8. D. Willard, Western New 

 York Horticultural Society. 



PEACH AND PLUM PvQT. 



One after another the diseases which have heretofore baffled the 

 skill of the cultivator, and often caused his pockets to be still empty at 

 the close of the fruit season, are brought under control. The rot of 

 peaches, and still more of plums, has long been a source of annoyance 

 and loss to the growers, but if they will follow the suggestions which 

 Prof. Erwin F. Smith, of the Mycological Section of the Department of 

 Agriculture, offers as a result of his observations in various peach grow- 

 ing sections of the United States, concerning peach rot and peach 

 blight, they may in a measure be able to overcome this serious obstacle 

 to success. 



The disease, says Prof. Smith, is due to a parasitic fungus which 

 produces many small ash-gray tufts on the discolored surface of the 

 rotting fruit. These tufts consist principally of spore dust, which is 

 carried by animals, washed by rains, or blown about, and causes the 

 rot to develop in sound peaches whenever it falls upon them under 

 proper conditions. The most favorable conditions for the germination 

 of the spores and the rapid spread of the rot are hot and moist weather. 



This fungus also causes a very characteristic blight of twigs and 

 branches. In rainy seasons this is quite apt to occur, especially if the 

 rotting fruits are allowed to remain upon the tree. The fungus lives 

 over winter in the decayed fruits, and in this way is reproduced year 

 after year. In the spring these dry, wrinkled fruits, which have been 

 left upon the earth or still cling to the branches, swell and soften under 

 the influence of repeated rains, and produce a new crop of spores ex- 

 actly like those of the previous season. 



The practical importance of this discovery is very great. Could 

 the blighted twigs and rotted fruits of one season be entirely destroyed, 

 the fungus would disappear and the rot with it. The more nearly com- 



