APPLE ROT 283 



Preventive Means. — If apples are large when attacked, 

 they usually soon fall; such should not be allowed to 

 remain on the ground, as the fungus present continues to 

 form spores if the winter is mild, and proves a source of 

 infection the following season. 



On the other hand, if young fruit becomes diseased, it 

 usually remains hanging on the tree ; such mummified 

 fruit should also be removed and burned. Do not throw 

 diseased fruit into the pigsty or on the manure-heap, but 

 burn it. 



When storing, all fruit exhibiting the slightest trace of 

 disease should be picked out. 



The following quotation shows how the Americans treat 

 this disease : — 



' Mr. Curtiss has repeatedly lost all of certain varieties 

 [of apples] by this fungus, and his orchard offered a good 

 field for experiment. In order to make the value of the 

 remedies used perfectly clear, he left some of the trees 

 unsprayed, and in one case he only sprayed half a tree, 

 leaving the other half unsprayed as a check. The remedies 

 used were potassium sulphide — one half-ounce to a gallon 

 of water — and the ammoniacal copper carbonate. The 

 sprayings were not begun until August the i8th for the 

 potassium sulphide, and August 27th for the copper car- 

 bonate, too late in both cases for the best results, as the 

 disease had already made considerable progress. But 

 even under these unfavourable conditions the result was 

 very marked. The apples that were not diseased at the 

 time of spraying were perfectly protected, while the un- 

 sprayed trees dropped all their fruit. On the tree that 

 was half sprayed the difference between the two sides was 

 as marked as between the sprayed and unsprayed trees. 



