136 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



growth. The same remedy must be used for your 

 grapes and grape vines, but anthracnose must be met 

 with a sponge of sulphate of iron, applied before the 

 foliage starts in the spring. 



The yellowing of the foliage on your fruit trees 

 in midsummer means another fungus attack; espe- 

 cially your plum trees may throw off a large part of 

 their foliage just when it is needed to perfect the 

 ripening of the fruit. It is a good thing to antici- 

 pate something of this sort with a thorough spraying 

 a little after the fruit sets. In all cases remember 

 that disease is associated with bad management. If 

 your trees are growing just right and are not stand- 

 ing in either too wet or too heated soil and have been 

 trimmed correctly and have not been whipped up 

 too sharply with fertilizers, you are not very likely 

 to see a fungus developing. 



It is curious to know that your pear tree blight 

 can be most easily prevented by growing the trees 

 in sod land, not without cultivation to be sure, but 

 forked about instead of plowed, and a good mulch 

 kept continually about the tree. This mulch, I may 

 as well say, is made up most easily of the coal ashes 

 from your furnace, or with any waste material that is 

 porous. Keep it a little back from the trunk and 

 have it thick enough to equalize the temperature and 

 moisture about the roots. 



The simplest way to apply hellebore to currants is 

 from a small barrel, rigged with a pump and hose. 

 For a large orchard this barrel can be carried about 



