PEACH LEAF CIRL: ITS NATURE AM) 



TRi:vrMEi\T. 



By Newton 1'. Tierce. 



CHAPTEK I. 



PRIMARY CONSIDERATIONS RELATIVE TO PEACH LEAF CURL. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This bulletin has been prepared to place ))efore the peach growers 

 of the United States the results of experiments conducted durinj^ sev- 

 eral years past for the prevention of peach h^af curl. Tht^ losses 

 arising" from this disease frequently amount to several millions of dol- 

 lars annually, and it is believed that a wide dissemination of the results 

 obtained by the experiments here outlined will lead to a larj^e saving 

 to the peach industry. During the progress of the Department's work 

 over one thousand six hundred peach growers in all peach-growing 

 States have been requested to test the preventive measures here rec- 

 ommended. A large num})er hiwe done so, and some of the more 

 important results of their work are also given. From conservative 

 data it has ])een estimated that the experimental work thus widely set 

 on foot by the Department has saved to the country in a single year 

 the sum of three-fourths of a million dollars. This is but a fraction, 

 however, of what may easily be saved in the future, when idl growers 

 have obtained a more thorough understanding of the disease and its 

 prevention. 



The obscure views held by many growers in the past upon the true 

 nature of peach leaf curl, and the total lack of preventive measures 

 up to a recent date, make it desirable to thoroughly consider the sub- 

 ject at this time and to record the detailed work upon which the con- 

 clusions reached are based. These conclusions are that peach leaf c-url 

 may be prevented with an ease, certainty, and cheapness rarely attained 

 in the treatment of any serious disease of plants, and that there is no 

 longer a necessit}" for the losses annually sustained from it in the 



United States. 



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