6o 



Annals of Horticulture. 



have often despaired of further profit. Yet the experiments 

 undertaken by the Department of Agriculture in 1888 

 show that both these diseases can be almost wholly con- 

 trolled. "The results have been such as to justify the 

 conclusion that we now have both downy mildew and 

 black-rot, the two worst enemies to American viticulture, en- 

 tirely under our control." Experiments of the present year 

 justify this statement. The cost of the application of reme- 

 dies, while considerable, is not burdensome, and the results 

 appear to be certain and positive. Investigations made by the 

 Delaware Experimental Station in 1889 upon "a vineyard of 

 twelve hundred vines, which occupy an area of 61,000 square 

 feet, or approximately one and four-tenth acres," gave the fol- 

 lowing figures: "The net cash income from sprayed vines 

 during the past season was $144.40. The treatment necessary 

 to protect these vines from the disease known as black-rot in- 

 volved an outlay of $36.10, leaving a cash balance of $108.30. 

 Proof is furnished that without this treatment the total net in- 

 come from the vineyard would have been $20.63." Others 

 have secured cheaper results with apparently no loss of effic- 

 iency. 



The results attained with grape diseases are prophetic of 

 what may be expected in other directions. Already the 

 potato-rot has been treated with every indication of success. 

 The leaf-blight of the pear and powdery mildew of the apple, 

 diseases which are often ruinous to nursery stock, and the 

 first of which renders the growing of pear stocks a failure in 

 most parts of the country, have recently been treated with 

 eminent success upon a very large scale. A block of 50,000 

 pear seedlings and several blocks of apple seedlings, aggregat- 

 ing about 390,000 stocks, growing in the vicinity of Washing- 

 ton, were almost entirely rid of disease at a very low cost. 



The treatment for* many of these parasitic diseases consists 

 in spraying the plants at proper seasons with some prepara- 

 tion of sulphur and copper. The greatest success has been 

 obtained with the Bordeaux mixture, a simple combination of 

 sulphate of copper and lime. The cost of making and apply- 

 ing this material to 30,000 apple seedlings, averaging a foot 

 and a half in height, was found by Mr. Galloway, of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, under whose direction the above ex- 

 periments were conducted, to be 79^ cents. A block of 



