64 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1896. 



$600,000. The loss which results to fruits from fungous diseases is 

 even greater still. Several years ago Prof. Burrell declared that 

 could the losses due to rots and blights in our fruit plantations be 

 exactly expressed in dollars and cents it would frighten cultivators 

 from their business. The loss of peaches from the brown rot on the 

 Chesapeake and Delaware peninsulas in 1888 was estimated by com- 

 petent observers at from $400,000 to $600,000, and that annually 

 caused by the so-called peach-yellows must be enormous. It is esti- 

 mated that four diseases of the orange and lemon cause annually an 

 aggregate loss of fully $250,000, and the loss from apple-scab ranges 

 from one-sixth to one-half the entire product. The strawberry 

 blight in many localities often ruins the entire crop ; the rots and mil- 

 dews affecting the grape have led to the extermination of hundreds of 

 vineyards, and according to a recent report on the new Californian 

 vine-disease the loss has reached within a comparatively short time 

 the stupendous sum of ten million dollars. Many other like estimates 

 might be given, but this I am sure is enough to give us some idea of 

 the extent of the ravages caused by these organisms. 



Most of our plant diseases are of recent origin, and the number of 

 new ones which occur — some of which are extremly disastrous — ren- 

 der it difficult indeed to keep pace with the advancing knowledge. 

 For example the orange-blight now affecting Florida has come to pub- 

 lic notice only within the last three years. The vine disease of 

 Southern California, which has previously been mentioned, and 

 which blasted so many of its vineyards, was unknown a few years 

 ago. The carnation rust, which was introduced from Europe, was 

 first noticed in this country by Prof. J. C. Arthur about six years 

 ago, and is now causing considerable trouble to our floriculturists. 

 The leaf-spot of the potato was first observed about eight years ago 

 in Missouri. The hollyhock rust was introduced from Europe in 

 1886. The pear-blight commenced to show its ravages only a few 

 years ago, and the peach-yellow, though well known for many years, 

 has only shown its universally disastrous effects within the last two or 

 three decades ; in short it may be said that the greater number of dis- 

 eases which are peculiar to our cultivated plants have made their ap- 

 pearance, or at least have assumed disastrous proportions, within the 

 last twenty-five years. It is within the last fifteen years however — 

 and the enormous increase in plant maladies seemed to necessitate 

 it — that any serious attempts have been made in the United States to 

 apply remedies for fungous growth, with the discovery and introduc- 

 tion of such fungicides as the Bordeaux mixture, eau celeste, am- 



