— 4— 



anthracnose first attacks the canes just above the ground, 

 the affected parts becoming sunken, with the center gray 

 and the rims purple. The disease creeps up rapidly and 

 the fruit on diseased canes dries up before ripening. 

 The anthracnose or scab of grape vines causes brown spots 

 on the leaves and scabby spots on the new growth and the 

 fruit. This word — anthracnose — is made up of two Greek 

 words meaning -'coal" and ^ ^disease," the dark color of the 

 diseased spot suggesting the name. 



Plum and cherry trees seem to have their share of ene- 

 mies among fungous diseases and the insect world. Prob- 

 ably the most common diseases are black knot and leaf 

 blight, or shot hole fungus, so called because the diseased 

 spots on the leaves fall out after a time and leave small 

 round holes. The black knot of plums and cherries is a 

 strange looking disease. Early in the spring a yellowish 

 swelling appears here and there along the branches and 

 trunk of the tree. This lump continues to darken through- 

 out the season until it becomes jet black. It often extends 

 four or five inches along the stem the first year and each 

 year increases in extent until the branch dies. This dis- 

 ease makes the tree very disgusting in appearance and is 

 perhaps the most easily recognized of any of the plant 

 diseases. 



A most serious fungous disease which attacks cherries, 

 plums .and peaches is known as brown rot. The fruit and 

 very young twigs are attacked by this fungus, and if you 

 have never seen a peach so diseased, I am sure you will 

 remember having seen the disease on cherries. Just when 

 the fruit is ripening it turns brown and looks as though 

 rotted; the next stage is a whitish gray coating of spores. 

 A spore, you will remember, answers the same purpose as 

 does the seed of a flowering plant, that is, it reproduces 



