124 FRUIT CULTURE. 



reach the mycelium which penetrates beneath 

 the surface. The knots should be cut out and 

 the wounds painted over Avith a solution of 

 sulphate of iron, or pasted with a puttj^ made 

 witli whiting and kerosene oil. With a vigi- 

 lant use of these preventives and remedies, we 

 may expect comparative exemption. But a 

 thoroughly affected tree should be rooted out 

 at once. There ought also to be a statute 

 penalty for the neglect of diseased trees. 



Plum Rot (^Monilia fructigena). This is a 

 fungus which is widely distributed, and is espe- 

 cially destructive to plums, peaches, cherries, 

 and other stone fruits, causing great loss by 

 rotting, especially in hot and sultry weather, 

 when the conditions are most favorable for its 

 rapid development. It is said that a single 

 grayish white patch upon a fruit or twig may 

 produce many thousands, perhaps millions, of 

 spores, each one being capable of being car- 

 ried by the wind to a new lodgment. As the 

 mycelium penetrates below the surface, it is not 

 affected by spraying, but the spores would un- 

 doubtedly be destroyed by this process. The 

 fungus lives over winter in the dried fruit and 

 twigs which it has destro^-ed. Hence the im- 

 portance of .collecting all infected fruit as soon 

 as it is discovered, and of burning the twigs 



