PEACHES 163 



about it on the fruit in his orchard and sug- 

 gested that he could prevent it by proper spray- 

 ing. He laughed at me. "Why, mister," he 

 said, "that ain't no disease. That variety of 

 peaches always has them marks." In his or- 

 chard his statement was correct. That variety 

 always had and always would have "them 

 marks" until he began to use modern spray 

 methods. 



Peach blight is a disease that affects the 

 twigs causing an exudate of gum. The buds 

 may also be killed and the leaves dwarfed. 

 Often on badly affected trees the fruit drops. 

 This disease is probably widely distributed but 

 more or less confused with other troubles. In 

 Indiana I have known of its existence for more 

 than ten years and during the last few seasons 

 it has appeared to be more common. Since 

 not much work has been done on it with a view 

 of preventing its injury, we are short of infor- 

 mation as to the best method for control. A 

 strong spray of lime sulphur applied in winter 

 seems to be the best method so far. For best 

 results this should be applied early in winter 

 in order to prevent the killing of the buds by 

 the disease — which seems to do at least part of 

 its work in the dormant season. Where blight 

 is present it will probably be necessary to 

 make two dormant applications of commercial 

 lime sulphur diluted at the rate of one to six. 



