109 



impossible to fight the disease with the aid of fungicides alone- 

 The other main reliance must be care in the destruction of all diseased 

 fruit. 



I should be sorry if the foregoing remarks left the impression that 

 the disease is found in our orchards only in wet seasons. That is not 

 the case. It is to be found at all times, probably, but in limited 

 quantity, a quantity safely to be neglected if it was the only disease- 

 in existence. If, however, the proper conditions arrive, it has a 

 peculiar faculty of reviving with suddenness and destroying a large 

 quantity of fruit. During and after such a season it is best to be 

 specially careful, as there is greater probability than ever that spores of 

 the disease will be left over to give the pest a fresh start the following 

 year. 



A CHERRY BLIGHT NEW TO THE STATE. 



THE cherries are attacked at blossoming time, and the effects become 

 visible at that time or soon after. The young fruit, as soon as the petals 

 have dropped, and while it has still the elongated form characteristic^ 



Fig. 123. Two different blights 

 of the cherry, one on the 

 fruit and the other on the 

 leaves. That on the fruit, 

 due to a fungus variously 

 classified, is shown at a, 

 6, c, d. a, a fruit attacked 

 at blossoming time and 

 killed at an early stage of 

 growth, the pedicel being 

 also attacked and withered 

 up : b, young fruit with its 

 pedicel killed at a slightly 

 later stage than a ; c, fruit 

 half grown attacked on one 

 side and showing an out- 

 break of spores at the light- 

 coloured areas on the dark- 

 ened and shrunken flesh ; 

 d, half grown fruit attacked 

 near the stem end and having 

 its stem also attacked. The 

 upper and largest cherry is 

 free from the disease, and 

 shows the stage to which 

 all the fruits should have 

 advanced but for the 

 disease The spots and holes 

 on the leaves in the case illus- 

 trated are due to a second 

 disease, although the fungus 

 here shown on the fruit does 

 sometimes attack the foli- 

 age. The microscopic 

 characteristics of the 

 fungus are shown in the 

 next illustration. See also 

 Fig. 122& on opposite page. 



ihe earliest stages, looses its normal green colour and becomes brown* 

 and shrivelled, sometimes almost black. In such cases the stem of the 

 young fruit is also attacked, the indications being a brown colouration^ 

 and a shrivelling and drying up in a curled and distorted fashion. 

 The fruits attacked at a little later stage also assume an unnatural 

 colour, but they do not dry up so readily or so completely. They 

 are more likely to present some portion of the surface where the 

 disease is most intense, this portion being marked by a slightly darker 

 colour at first and by a nearly black colour at last. If the fruit reaches 

 the ripening stage, the ripening is characterised by unnatural colours.. 



