32 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



needed where sick plants may be cured, and thereby ways and 

 means devised for the benefit of practical growers, who in turn 

 will nurse their own ailing plants, or, better still, be able to 

 foresee the enemy and avoid him. If one may be pardoned the 

 expression, the best way to cure a plant is to preserve it in health. 



The conditions which are provided for the best growth of green- 

 house plants are those that favor the development of the fungous 

 enemies. As a rule they thrive best with plenty of heat and 

 moisture, therefore a greenhouse, other things remaining equal, 

 will be the place where blights of all sorts may be expected. It is 

 well known that the means of propagation is through the transfer 

 of the fungus itself or its spores produced in countless numbers. 

 The preventive measures are, first, to start new plants with healthy 

 stock either from seed, or slips free from the disease; second, to 

 prevent the germs of decay from entering the healthy plants, and 

 third, if they are present to check their growth as much as 

 possible. 



Strong healthy seed is a very important starting point, the 

 necessity of which is not always fully realized, but this is not 

 the time to dwell upon this fact. In like manner cuttings 

 should be from the best possible stock. If the seed and the slips 

 were healthy, the only point necessary for continued vigor would 

 consist in keeping out the germs, and surrounding the plants with 

 the best conditions for growth. The latter the propagator is 

 supposed to do. The germs enter from the soil or the air or both. 

 Care should be exercised that the seed bed be germ free, and to 

 this end the wood work of greenhouses needs to be fumigated and 

 cleaned as frequently as possible. The soil is a ready receptacle 

 for receiving spores and soon gets charged with them, therefore a 

 frequent change of soil is important. 



After everything has been done along sanitary lines for the good 

 health of the plants, namely the use of healthy seed in healthful 

 surroundings, there are some matters that still may need attention. 

 Fungicides have their place in the greenhouse as well as in the 

 orchard and garden. There are a few germ destroyers that when 

 properly used have paid handsomely. 



With roses, the mildew may be controlled by sulphur, either 

 dusted on the foliage or heated upon the greenhouse pipes. The 

 Black Spot has been materially checked by the Bordeaux Mixture 

 and Cupram (Ammoniacal Solution of the Carbonate of Copper). 

 In the Bordeaux Mixture, freshly slaked stone lime is combined with 



