3 1 8 Plums and Plum Culture 



At blossoming time, however, one may frequent- 

 ly find buds and blossoms and sometimes young leaves, 

 blackened as though struck by frost. This usually 

 proves to be the work of the monilia. The buds and 

 fruit spurs are sometimes entirely killed in early spring 

 and are often seriously weakened. 



When the twigs, buds and fruit spurs are attacked 

 in this way, there often ensues a sort of gummosis. 

 There will be found exuding from the buds and from 

 the axils of the spurs small masses of white gum, look- 

 ing very much like those found on fruit attacked by 

 curculio. In bad cases the monilia and the gummosis 

 together kill the twigs and younger branches al- 

 together. 



The most conspicuous damage caused by this 

 fungus is that on the fruit. If the weather happens to 

 be damp and warm — ''muggy" — toward ripening time, 

 the rot proceeds with terrible rapidity, destroying ten, 

 twenty or fifty per cent, of the crop in a single day. 

 What is even worse, the fruit rots after picking, so 

 that plums sent to market in perfectly sound condition 

 may arrive at their destination a day or two later so 

 badly spoiled as to be wholly unsalable. This latter 

 feature of the trouble may be minimized by careful 

 sorting at the time of packing, taking care that no 

 plums which show the rot are put in. and prompt 

 shipment with good ventilation. First-class cold stor- 

 age will also delay the progress of the rot to a consid- 

 erable extent, but will not wholly stop it. 



The disease is caused by a fungus, as has already 

 been said. The spores of this fungus gain access to 

 the tree very early in spring, at the time the buds 

 start, or even before. They lodge in the bud scales of 

 the leaf and flower buds, germinate there and quickly 

 penetrate the tissues of the-twig itself. It will readily 

 be seen that any remedy to be effective must be used 



