The Canadian Horticulturist. 193 



PEACH LEAF CURL. 



(exoascus deformans.) 



Sir,— Is there any remedy for the peach leaf curl ? Already, May 26th, the young 

 leaves are showing its presence. The prospect of a good peach crop is so favorable, that I 

 would like to try any means of stopping this curl. 



W. Smith, Wiriona, Ont. 



NFORTUNATELY we know of no remedy for this evil, at least 

 none that can be applied so late in the season as this. Prof Scrib- 

 ner suggests spraying the trees before the buds begin to swell, with 

 a strong solution, 30 or 40 per cent, of sulphate of iron, as a pre- 

 ventative. The curl, tlwugh usually considered a minor evil, has, 

 of late years, done us much mischief, taking off both fruit and 

 leaves before maturity. Sometimes the curl kills the young shoots. 



Mr. E. Ainslie, of Beaconsfield, wrote for this journal in May, 1888, that he 

 had succeeded in destroying this fungus by burn- 

 ing old leather on some coals in a tin pail, under- 

 neath the trees. The pail can be levated 

 through the tree by the pitch-fork. 



Mr. Briggs, of Massachusetts, also speaks 

 of rubber fumes as being an effective insec- 

 ticide. He states that he was successful in driv- 

 ing away the rosebug by the use of fumes of 

 burning rubber. It is barely possible that good 

 may result in the use of this remedy, but it has 

 not yet been established. The swollen, pow- 

 dery appearance of the leaves, affected with 

 the curl, needs no description. Fig. 46 shows 

 a cross section of a healthy leaf, from the upper 

 to the under surface, a representin 

 and /> the lower surface. Of course 

 by the use of a magnifying glass that any such 

 distinction of cells, as these here shown, can be 

 discerned. The fungus begins on the leaf as a 

 small swelling on the tissue upper half of the 

 leaf, and .spreads until it affects the whole sur- 

 face, and consequently becomes nearly double in 

 width and greatly increased in thickness. As a 

 result the leaf finally shrivels and drops. The 

 tree is thereby so weakened as to lose its fruit 

 as well as its foliage. 





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