1686 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



will produce soft fruits that easily suc- 

 cumb to all such troubles. 

 Leaf Spot 

 This is a leaf disease characterized in 

 the first stages by small brownish spots 

 usually not more than an eighth to a 

 fourth of an inch in diameter. 

 Remedy 

 Culture and fertilizing have been the 

 most eflacacious means of checking it. 

 Plants kept growing thriftily do not feel 

 its effects and soon grow out of it. 

 Spike or Long Leaf 

 Characteristics 

 Any tendency to spike is quickly evi- 

 denced by the leaves becoming long and 

 slender. As the disease progresses, the 

 plant becomes more and more like a 

 bundle of rod-like leaves. In the final 

 stages the central leaves of the plant do 

 not unfold, and thus in their long spike- 

 like form give the name to the disease. A 

 plant at all badly affected rarely produces 

 any fruit; if any is formed it is small 

 and practically valueless. Plants that are 

 but slightly affected produce very poor, 

 small-sized fruit. 



Cause 

 In most cases spike is apparently in- 

 duced by improper fertilizing. Acid phos- 

 phate in the fertilizer is one of the most 

 common causes. Wood ashes and any 

 poorly proportioned mineral fertilizer 

 will cause it. 



This disease is apparently readily trans- 

 mitted, and suckers or slips from dis- 

 eased parents should never be planted. 

 Experiments have shown that fully 70 to 

 80 per cent of slips from spiky parent 

 plants failed to produce marketable fruits. 

 Remedies 

 First, never plant a slip that is in the 

 least affected with the disease. 



Second, for nitrogen and phosphorus 

 fertilizers use tankage, dried blood, bone 

 meal, or other organic forms. If neces- 

 sary to use acid phosphate, give a good 

 application of lime, 300 to .500 pounds per 

 acre, shortly afterward. 



Snn Scald 

 Sun scald is not strictly a disease, but 



is common and causes so much loss that 

 it is well to consider it here. It is caused 

 by the bending over of the plant so that 

 one side of the fruit is exposed to the 

 direct sun rays. Through moisture adher- 

 ing to the fruit the action of the sun's 

 rays produces premature ripening and 

 scalding at this spot. Rot soon develops 

 in this scalded part and the fruit is lost. 

 This can be largely prevented by sending 

 boys through the patch every week to put 

 a small handful of dried grass upon every 

 fruit that has fallen over. 

 Tangleroot 

 Tangleroot is characterized by the roots 

 winding round and round the stem in- 

 stead of passing out into the surrounding 

 ground. 



Cause 

 It is caused chiefly, if not entirely, by 

 one of two things: Hard soil, or the 

 slip not having been stripped before plant- 

 ing. In heavy clay soils the ground will 

 often be allowed to become hard. As the 

 young roots are tender and have not much 

 penetrating power, they will follow the 

 line of least resistance. 



Remedy 



The cure is simple; keep the ground 

 in good cultivation, and if conditions are 

 not very favorable when planting strip 

 the plants. 



Wilt 

 The disease known as wilt is quite easi- 

 ly recognized, and if taken in time may be 

 controlled. Apparently it is transmitted 

 from one generation to the next, so slips 

 from infected plants should never be 

 chosen. According to the best informa- 

 tion obtainable, the disease is a fungus 

 one, but it acts in a way not clearly un- 

 derstood, and should be met with extreme 

 measures at its first appearance. 

 Characteristics 

 Usually the first sign of the disease is 

 a loss of color, the leaves changing from 

 green to red, then yellow, and finally 

 brown and withering. The withering be- 

 gins at the tip as a rule, and as it passes 

 down the leaf loses its stiffness and drops, 

 producing the wilted appearance which 

 gives the disease its name. If the attack 



