84 



POPULAR FRUIT GROWING. 



Fig. 36. Brown rot; half grown plums 

 rotting with this disease. 



from the trees and ground and destroyed by burying deeply or 

 burning. During the ripening season all rotting fruit should 



be gathered promptly and 

 burned. Where the fruit 

 sets thick, thinning is of 

 much assistance in keep- 

 ing the disease in check. 

 Spraying has not general- 

 ly proven successful, on ac- 

 count of the rapidity of 

 the spread of the disease 

 when once started and be- 

 cause of the liability of 

 the foliage to injury from 

 the spraying solutions. It 

 is probably desirable to use 

 Bordeaux mixture on the 

 trees in the spring before 

 the leaves open, and then apply two or three sprayings of potas- 

 sium sulfide about picking time. 



Crown Gall or Foot Rot. This disease or class of diseases 

 affects the peach in much the same way as the plum. In the 

 case of the peach, however, the wood is made weaker and the 

 trees are broken off at the surface of the ground. It is thought 

 by some that it is the result of too much moisture, and the or- 

 ganism to which it is ascribed (Dendrophagus gobosus) comes 

 in later as a saprophyte. There is no known remedy. Diseased 

 trees seldom amount to much and the best treatment is prob- 

 ably to remove and burn them. 



Leaf Curl (Exoascus deformans). This disease appears soon 

 after the leaves come out. It causes them to become distorted 

 and swollen and later those that are infected the worst fall off, 

 leaving the tree nearly or quite bare of foliage. The remedy 

 for it is spraying with Bordeaux mixture about two weeks be- 

 fore the buds begin to swell in the spring. In wet springs a 

 second application of one-half strength can be used to advan- 

 tage. Where the trees are sprayed with lime and sulfur In 

 winter for scale, the disease is held in check. A weak solution 



