Peach Rot. 151 



been quite free from rot, while subsequent crops have been increasingly 

 aflected under similar conditions of cultivation and management. So 

 in a neighborhood where the rot has prevailed for years, and especially 

 in an orchard wdiere it has spread unchecked, it becomes necessary to 

 use the most stringent measures to secure a crop of any variety, and 

 particularly of the kinds most liable to rot, like Hale's Eaidy. 



It is apparent that the rot has had an alarming increase during the 

 last few years. We have a conspicuous illustration of this fact in the 

 very noted peach region on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where 

 the rot has been reported as one thousand per cent, greater this season 

 than last. 



Every peach of the tender varieties, which is stung by curculio, or 

 bitten by other insects, or otherwise mechanically injured, is pretty 

 certain to rot under every circvmistance of weather, while the hardier 

 kinds will carry the same injuries without rot, if the weather be cool 

 and dry. But when the rot has commenced, it spreads very rapidly by 

 contact of peaches, and if it is rainy by the spatter and drip of the 

 rain. This we may call the "transplanting" of the rot, the micro- 

 scopic fungus being transferred from peach to peach. This is always 

 fatal, and can only be prevented by destroying the aflected peaches as 

 fast as the rot appears. Every tree should be carefully examined daily 

 during the season of ripening. Often have I seen a dozen or so of 

 peaches commencing to rot infect a bushel or more with the plague 

 during one w'arm rainy night. 



The destruction proceeds more slowly and less certainly when the 

 peaches have been thinned, so that no two hang in contact, and when 

 there is no rain to spread the infection. In this case the fungus ma- 

 tures its spores (seeds), which are carried by the wind to take root in 

 any congenial soil. Those peaches which have been injured by the 

 curculio or otherwise, furnish the required soil for the growth of the 

 infinitclv minute fungus seeds, millions of which may mature on a 

 single rotting peach, and on these injured spots they take root and 

 grow, and the peach rots. But the perfectly sound peaches supply no 

 conditions lor the germination of these spores, and such peaches escape. 

 This seems to be the philosophy of the matter. Hence the two cardi- 



