Plant Sanitation. 



202 



[March, 1909. 



Robert Cameron said that Prof. Jack- 

 son's lecture was very interesting, 

 although it did not contain much that 

 was very new. The subject is as old as 

 the oldest plants we have on the earth 

 at the present time. All the plants we 

 have now are those that survived the 

 numerous diseases and enemies they 

 had to contend with in the ages that 

 are past, and it is all a question of the 

 survival of the fittest. We can never 

 expect to have plants without disease. 



He said that he was much interested 

 in the reference to disease-resisting vio- 

 lets and cantaloupes, and would like 

 more information concerning thern. In 

 the matter of the coffee leaf disease to 

 which the lecturer had referred, he 

 stated that at one time in the East 

 Indies the Arabian coffee was almost 

 destroyed by a fungus disease, but the 

 industry was saved by substituting 

 another species, the Coffea Liberica, 

 which was a more robust and a large- 

 growing plant than the Coffea Arabica. 



Mr. Spooner called attention to the 

 fungus disease of the holly-hock, and 

 asked if some one could give a remedy 

 for it. 



Mr. Cameron, in reply to Mr. Spooner's 

 inquiry, stated that hollyhocks raised 

 from seed sown early in January and 

 grown, along in a moderately warm 

 house, made good material for planting 

 out in May, and that plants grown in 

 this way were more thrifty and less 

 subject to the attacks of disease. 



James Wheeler said that much trouble 

 was experienced by growers from the 

 fungus diseases of plants, and that the 

 only thing to do by way of a remedy 

 was selection and new stock. This was 

 very well, however, for annuals, but, 

 what shall we do for apples and pears, 

 for which there does not seem to be any 

 cure ? What can be done to save our 

 trees ? 



Mr. Cameron replied that many of the 

 diseases that attacked our plants were 

 often blessings in disguise. The gypsy 

 and brown- tail moths have been a great 

 expense, but we haye learned a lesson 

 that by spraying our orchards we are 

 able to raise much better fruit. We can 

 control disease but we cannot cure it. 

 —Transactions of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, 1908, P. 1. 



