HORTICUTURALL SOCIETY. 35 



able to keep down or destroy the enemies to their growing crop, 

 will soon be forced to the wall. 



The principal enemies by which strawberry plants are liable to 

 be iDJured and often destroyed, is fungus. There is one fungus 

 more destructive to strawberry plants than all other diseases com- 

 bined. This fungi is the direct cause of what is known as the 

 Strawberry Leaf Blight Fungus (Ramularia Zulasnei). It is uni- 

 versal over the United States and Europe. It is rapidly on the 

 increase over the Northwestern States, and, if not arrested, will 

 soon destroy the whole of our strawberry plantations. At the 

 present time we have but one variety that is comparatively free 

 from this disease, and that is the Crescent Seedling, a pistillate 

 variety, and nothing reliable to fertilize it with. 



The first appearance of this disease on strawberry plants is indi- 

 cated by small deep purple or red spots on the upper surface of 

 the leaves. They rapidly increase and change to a reddish brown, 

 and in time become gray or white in the centre. The leaves turn 

 brown at the tips, and in a short time shrivel up and die. Whole 

 plantations are oftentimes destroyed by this disease. No varieties 

 are free from it, but it is much worse on some varieties than on 

 others. 



The disease is a vegetable parasite, and as much a real plant as 

 the strawberry plant itself. The germs or spores from which they 

 grow are dropped on the upper surface of the strawberry leaves. 

 If the weather is warm and moist, they readily germinate, the roots 

 enter the tissue of the leaves, and after a time mass together and 

 send up branches from the affected parts. From the tips of those 

 branches germs are rapidly matured, and thrown off. Strawberry 

 plants when badly affected with this disease are soon exhausted of 

 their nourishment and wither and die; usually, when the fruit is 

 half grown. 



There is no way to destroy this parasite when established in the 

 foliage of the plants, without destroying the strawberry plant itself. 

 Prevention is the only remedy. By spraying the strawberry plants 

 with solutions which we will give further on, the germs are de- 

 stroyed, or at least prevented from germinating. This parasite is 

 precisely the same as foul seeds and seed in the soil. When both 

 are eradicated from the soil that is the end of them until a new 

 importation is received. For that reason the utmost care should 

 be taken never to set a plant for fruiting affected with this or any 

 other disease. 



Owing to the difficult matter of getting plants free from in- 

 sects and disease, all growers should raise their own plants as will 

 appear further on; and to these plants to be transplanted to fruit- 

 ing beds, the greatest attention and care should be given. They 

 should frequently be sprayed with one or both of the following solu- 

 tions : 



Solution 1. Dissolve one pound of Hyposulphite of Soda ( Glob- 

 ular salts) in ten gallons of water. The action of this remedy is 

 immediate, and should be applied frequently during the season. 



Solution 2. In a gallon of hot water dissolve one pound of sul- 



