Fungous Diseases of Garden Plants. — 13^ 



far recommended is to spray the seed beets with some fungicide 

 (Bordeaux mixture), and thus secure seed that is free from infec- 

 tion. The '^ beet leaf-spot disease^' is more generally known, 

 and attacks the leaves of all the ordinary varieties of cultivated 

 beets, mangolds included, appearing in small pale-brown spots, 

 which gradually increase in size and become darker in color. 

 The disease runs its course somewhat similar to the bean an- 

 thracnose. Spraying the young plants with the ordinary fungi- 

 cides is suggested as a preventive. Rotation of crops and the 

 destruction of waste leaves at gathering time, also seem de- 

 sirable. 



Diseases of the Cabbage Family. — Our cultivated plants of 

 the genus Brassica (cabbages, cauliflower, turnips, etc.) are, as a 

 rule, robust and to a remarkable extent exempt from disease. 

 Only a single one, so far as I am aware, the " club root" (club 

 foot, clump foot), has often become a source of real annoyance 

 and loss to the gardener. It attacks the roots of members of 

 the cabbage family, causing swellings and malformations, and 

 ending in the dwarfing or death of the attacked plants. Crops 

 on limestone soil are usually safe from attacks, which fact sug- 

 gests the free use of lime in seed-beds and cabbage fields. Ap- 

 plications of muriate of potash, kainit, possibly of nitrate of 

 soda and phosphatic fertilizers, to cabbage ground, I believe also 

 counteract the tendency to club root. If we use uninfected 

 plants, and grow any mem- 

 ber of this tribe only once 

 in three or four years on 

 the same piece of ground, 

 we will have nothing to 

 fear from the disease. 



Diseases of Celery. 

 — Celery is subject to quite 

 a number of fungous dis- 

 eases, among them two 

 leaf-blights, which are not 

 dissimilar, and quite com- 

 mon and prevalent. The 

 " celery blight',' sometimes 



erroneously called eel- _ , ^ n . ^ . ■> 11 t.i- 1.. 



^ V , Celery Leaflet Attacked by Blight. 



ery rust, has become a ■' it, 



regular and much-dreaded visitor in our celery patches. A leaflet 



attacked by this disease is here illustrated. The presence of the 



blight may be first noticed in small, irregular, yellowish-green 



spots upon the leaves. These spots soon enlarge and become 



darker in color. Finally the whole leaf is covered with great 



blotches, and withers away. The self-blanching varieties seem to be 



