Tenth Annual Meeting 141 



careful manner possible, were tested on each of seven different 

 varieties of peach trees, and later tvv^o additional solutions were 

 tested on one variety. Spraying was begun in one of the 

 orchards on April 26; in the other on May 23. Two weeks 

 later the trees were examined, and, according to the condition 

 of the foliage, were again sprayed with the same fungicide or 

 with a more diluted form of the same. The trees were ex- 

 amined again a week or ten days later, and the condition of 

 both foliage and fruit was very carefully noted. 



In brief, the effect of all the stronger fungicides; viz., 

 Bordeaux mixture in many degrees of dilution, down to, but not 

 including, one containing only two pounds of copper sulphate 

 and double the quantity of lime; the soda-bordeaux mixture, 

 and the ammonia solution of copper carbonate, all caused such 

 serious injury that their further use could not be contemplated. 

 The injurious effects were seen in the so-called "shot-hole" 

 appearance of the leaves, in a general yellowing of the older 

 leaves, and in a copious falling of the foliage amounting in some 

 cases to fully 50 per cent of the total. More serious still was a 

 peculiar effect upon the fruit. In every case, increasingly so 

 with the stronger fungicides, the bulk of the fruit withered and 

 fell to the ground while still about the size of a small marble. So 

 pronounced was this that upon some of the trees, notably those 

 treated with the ammonia solution of carbonate, the average 

 number of peaches per tree amounted to only twenty-three, 

 although a full crop had set. The average yield of the trees 

 sprayed with Bordeaux 5-5-50 was 6, while those sprayed with 

 the soda-bordeaux did not mature a single fruit. These figures 

 are to be compared with the average yield from the unsprayed 

 trees, amounting to 211 peaches per tree. This is a fact which 

 I have not seen noted in discussions regarding the effect of 

 fungicides upon peach trees. It was also observed that the 

 individual trees showed a very varying susceptibility to injury, the 

 foliage of one tree, for example, suffering very little from even a 

 strong fungicide while its neighbor of the same variety could not 

 stand one of half the strength. Of all the strong fungicides, 

 the ammonia solution of copper carbonate did the least injury to 

 the foliage. Yet it was on these trees that the fruit was so 

 largely destroyed, a fact which indicates that it was the fungicide 



