1918.] PUBLIC DOCmiENT — No. 31. 35 a 



Sweet cherries suffered severely from brown rot, but this 

 disease caused little damage to plums and peaches, except as it 

 followed hail injury, when the loss from rotting became very 

 heavy. 



Two heavy hail storms, one in the latter part of July, the 

 other early in August, seriously damaged fruit and tobacco in 

 the Connecticut Valley and vicinity. 



Apples and pears suffered comparatively little from disease. 

 Mcintosh and Fameuse were, in some orchards, badly scabbed. 

 Our observations seem to indicate that there are individual 

 cases of extreme susceptibility to scab among trees of these 

 varieties, and that in such cases the usual fungicidal applica- 

 tions are insufficient to control the disease. Bitter-pit and 

 fruit-spot were much less serious than in 1917, although both 

 were of more frequent occurrence than usual. 



Truck crop growers in the vicinity of Boston were heavy 

 losers from downy mildew of cucumbers, which was severe both 

 under glass and out of doors. Preliminary experimental spray- 

 ing of greenhouse cucumbers for the control of this disease gave 

 promising results. The work will be continued. 



Celery, especially the Golden Self-Blanching variety, was al- 

 most a complete failure on some truck crop farms, owing to the 

 severity of crown-rot and heart-rot. Growers are substituting 

 other varieties because of the susceptibility of this variety to 

 these bacterial diseases. However, owing to the desirable quali- 

 ties of Golden Self-Blanching, an effort is being made, through 

 selection of resistant plants, to develop a strain of this variety 

 immune to these diseases. Early and late blight of celery in- 

 flicted but slight damage. This condition made very uncertain 

 and unsatisfactory the results obtained from spraying with a 

 number of fungicides on experimental plots located on three 

 truck crop farms. This experiment will be repeated in 1918 

 with some modifications. 



Heavy frost in September sevci'ely injured many crops. A 

 large percentage of field corn failed to mature properly, and 

 fodder corn was greatly reduced in feeding value. Injury to 

 beans and potatoes was relatively small in most sections. 



Although a record number of reports of the occurrence of 

 plant diseases in the State was received, and correspondence 



