264 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



(4) "I dig out, cut and scrape cleanly, all the diseased parts. I then 

 wash the root thoroughly and dip it into a pail of Bordeaux mixture. The 

 plants which I treated this way in 1915 look very well this year. I dug up 

 several in order to examine them, and with the exception of one, possibly 

 two, the disease seemed to have been stopped and the plants were making 

 healthy growth. 



"A friend recommended using a 5% solution of formaldehyde. I tried 

 this on several points which I was treating early in the season, giving them 

 a dip in a bucket containing this 5% solution, after all of the black rot 

 had been removed with a knife. I dug these plants up recently and looked 

 at them and found a sort of bluish, fuzzy mould on them, which I did not 

 like the appearance of. Perhaps it was harmless and would not interfere 

 with the growth of the plants, but I decided to return to the Bordeaux mix- 

 ture, which seemed to be giving good results. 



"Last spring I had a number of plants throw up crooked and deformed 

 stalks. In some cases, some of the stalks would be extremely large, crooked 

 and irregular, while others from the same plant would be thin and of irregu- 

 lar size. Some plants affected in this way bore two or three enormous 

 flowers on short stems, while the rest of the bloom from the same plant was 

 small or deformed. I had never had this trouble before and attributed it to 

 too much bone meal and ashes, or the use of these two fertilizers in con- 

 junction. I withheld all further fertilizers from them during the season, 

 cultivating the ground thoroughly, and applied a little lime. Most of the 

 plants seemed to recover and became normal before the end of the season. 

 In some instances, I dug up the roots and found them perfectly healthy. 



"The root disease which I have mentioned above, I have found very 

 prevalent in plants which I have imported from England and France, par- 

 ticularly in those from England. In some sections of this country it seems 

 to be little known, while in other sections it has proven to be a great 

 nuisance. The actual losses or deaths of plants from this disease have 

 been very few with me, possibly because I have learned to look for it on 

 appearance of first symptoms." — Jas. Boyd. 



I consider the information contained in Mr. Boyd's letter very valuable 

 indeed and would be pleased to hear from other members who may have 

 experienced trouble with their peonies or iris. Even though your plants are 

 perfectly healthy, we want to be prepared for any contingency that might 

 arise, and by the exchange of experiences we will broaden our knowledge and 

 increase our efficiency, thereby enabling us to handle intelligently and prop- 

 erly any diseased condition of our plants. 



