PLUMS AND CHERRIES 181 



menace to the industry that European sorts 

 can not safely be grown at all. 



"Plum pockets" is the name of a disease that 

 causes the fruit to swell into puffy distorted 

 shapes. It is caused by a fungus and may be 

 corrected by the application of a strong winter 

 spray of commercial lime sulphur diluted at 

 the rate of one to five. 



Crown gall is a disease that may be found on 

 nearly all fruit trees in the form of rough 

 excrescences at or near the soil line. The trees 

 as they come from the nursery should be in- 

 spected and if found to be diseased they should 

 be burned. The grower who has crown gall in 

 his orchard usually has only himself to blame, 

 for he has probably planted it with his trees. 

 Sometimes the most careful nurseryman may 

 send out slightly infected trees through an 

 oversight and sometimes the crooked tree mail 

 may trim off the galls and smear the wounds 

 with mud — yes, that very thing has been done, 

 and done recently. Therefore, look at your 

 trees carefully before you plant them — and 

 then look a second time to be sure. 



Brown rot and shot-hole fungus are two dis- 

 eases that attack the plum and cherry with 

 almost equal impartiality. They are the bane 

 of the stone fruit-grower's existence for they 

 sometimes attack with such virulence that the 

 crop may vanish into thin air almost before we 



