42< 



fHE Canadian Horticulturist. 



PLUM GROWING AT BERLIN. 



HE past season's plum crop in this neighborhood was excep- 

 tionally fine, although not quite so abundant as the previous 

 season's ; the fruit was better in quality, larger in size, and the 

 darker varieties finer in color, and with but a slight percentage 

 of rotting. Hitherto it was almost impossible to get a good 

 crop of Victorias and Pond's Seedling, on account of their 

 rotting propensities. The past season was an exception ; the 

 fruit colored finely, and fancy prices obtained on account of 

 their beauty for canning purposes. The plum rot may be 

 mainly attributed to the curculio, from punctures made usually at the apex of 

 the fruit This is done after the time of depositing the eggs and after the spray- 

 ing is finished. From the incisions made, a gum exudes, which in appearance 

 resembles diamonds ; these excrescences become pasty during moist weather 

 and life being ever on the alert to invade matter when in a proper state for 

 inception, takes immediate possession, hence the appearance of the fungus ; the 

 cherry may be affected in a similar manner. Hitherto I have used aloes to ward 

 off the plum curculio with good success, but, running short of that drug, had to 

 fall back on Paris green very reluctantly ; but was agreably disappointed, having 

 found it equally effective, not only in checking the curculio, but in preventing 

 the fruit from rotting. This may be attributed to both the arsenical and cop- 

 pery ingredients which are well known in science as preventives of fermenta- 

 tion and decomposition. The use of copper sulphate was known by the farmers 

 and foresters of Britain nearly a century ago, for preventing the smut in wheat 

 and the dry rot in the Scotch pine timber. 



Acting from the experience of my neighbors who had almost defoliated 

 their trees by using too much Paris green and without an admixture of lime — 

 which is absolutely necessary in order to neutralize the effects of the poison on 

 the foliage — I found that a teaspoonful of Paris green to a three gallon pailful of 

 water and a handful of slacked lime thrown in was sufKicient for the purpose. 

 Lime even used alone is a fungicide and will clear trees of lichens, which are 

 closely related to fungi. It may not be out of place to remark, that since the 

 use of Paris green to kill the potato beetle has been made, a perceptible lessening 

 in the potato rot has been effected. It may be also noticed that since spraying 

 is now generally practised, by either using Paris green or sulphate of copper 

 (blue vitriol), the black-knot which has hitherto been so destructive to plum and 

 cherry trees, has almost disappeared. 



The black-knot fungus appears to belong to a genera indigenous to this 

 continent, affecting many of our forest trees, such as black ash, pine, cedar 

 (Arbor vitce), cherry, etc. ; but exotics of both Cerasus and Prunus^ even the 

 hardy sloe (Prttnus spi?iosa) suffer the worst, probably due to climate extremes. 

 Internal decay or fungoid decomposition expels the resin or [gum through 

 fissures and cracks upon the surface, and on these substances the fungus spores 

 are deposited, and not directly on the bark as some suppose. 



Berlin. Simon Ro\'. 



