138 THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



trouble. In fact, the disease may be almost com- 

 pletely eradicated under favorable circumstances. 



The disease, characterized by the curling or 

 crumpling of the leaves, usually shows soon after 

 the first foliage has attained its full size. These 

 curled and puckered leaves soon take on a grayish 

 appearance,^ due to the ripening of the fungus spores. 

 The leaves then soon fall off and the tree is thereby 

 greatly weakened. The fruit also follows the leaves 

 and the trees may be left entirely bare by the first 

 of July. If the disease recurs during two or three 

 successive years the trees will be killed outright. 



The spread of this disease is greatly dependent 

 upon weather conditions, cool, wet, muggy weather 

 being especially favorable to it. Usually the disease 

 is not noticed until the damage is nearly done ; that 

 is, until the leaves are curled or until they begin to 

 drop. At this time nothing can be done to help the 

 situation for the current year. As the disease is 

 pretty apt to appear in succeeding years, however, 

 adequate arrangements should be made for spraying 

 the following spring. 



Any of the standard fungicides, if properly ap- 

 plied, will mitigate the ravages of leaf curl. Strong 

 solutions of Bordeaux mixture are satisfactory if 

 given very early in the season. The application 

 should be made before the opening of the buds in 

 spring and the second application should follow just 

 before the blossoms open. The first application, 

 which is the most important, can well be made with 

 the plain copper sulphate solution, three pounds of 

 copper sulphate in 50 gallons of water. 



A few years ago it was noticed that the leaf curl 

 was much less severe on trees treated with the lime- 

 sulphur spray for the San Jose scale. Continued 

 experiments have proved that the lime-sulphur mix- 



